The Alien Invasion Predicament
by sammie.spad
Summary: The aliens have landed and they want our planet… told mostly from the point of view of Sheldon Cooper, the Caltech physicist who tries desperately to save his friends and unite humanity during its darkest hour…. Inspired by my love of HG Wells... bit of added Shenny fluff too!
1. Chapter 1: The Eve of the War

**The aliens have landed and they want our planet… told from the point of view of Sheldon Cooper, the Caltech physicist who tries desperately to save his friends and unite humanity during its darkest hour…. Inspired by Reparata's story "Against the fall of Night" and my love of HG Wells =))**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Big Bang Theory, or it's character neither do I own War of the Worlds or Battle: Los Angeles of which I based this story!**

**Chapter one: The Eve of the War:**

No one would have believed in the first few years of the twenty-first century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than our own but yet as mortal as any other; that as the daily routine continued as men busied themselves about their various concerns, they were being scrutinised and studied, perhaps in the very same way as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures which swarm and multiply in a drop of water. No one even gave a second thought to the older worlds of space as sources of human danger, or thought of them only to dismiss the idea of life upon them as highly improbable. It is curious to recall some of the mental habits of those now departed days. At most, terrestrial men fancied the thought that there might be other life upon the many billions of planets within our own galaxy, perhaps inferior to themselves and ready to welcome a missionary enterprise. Yet across the vacuum of space, minds immeasurably superior to ours with intellects vast, cool and unsympathetic, regarded our Earth with envious eyes and surely and slowly they drew their plans against us…

We now know that the invaders came from a planet not that dissimilar from the planet Mars, which inhabits our own solar system. If the nebular hypothesis is to have any truth, then the invaders home world is much older than our own, and long before this Earth even began to be molten, life upon its surface must have begun its course. It has air and water and all that is necessary for the support of animated existence. The secular cooling which must one day overtake our own planet has already gone far indeed with our invaders. Its physical condition still remains much a mystery but we now know that, even in its equatorial region, the mid-day temperature barely reaches that of our coldest winter. The oceans have shrunk into an almost non-existence. The last stages of exhaustion have become quite a problem for the inhabitants. The daily struggle has darkened their hearts and they finally realised that they have no choice but to search for another world in which to relocate to ensure the survival of their species.

And we homosapien, the creatures who inhabit this Earth, must be to them at least as alien and lowly as my roommate, Leonard Hofstadter is to me! But before we judge them too harshly, their world is far gone in its cooling and this world is still crowded with life, but crowded with only what they regard as inferior life forms; present company exempted obviously! To carry warfare Earthward is indeed, their only escape from the destruction that their dying star has sealed for them.

During the summer month of August a great light was seen in the night sky; I remember being been immensely excited about this strange green flare and rushed up to the roof top of our apartment block, along with Howard Wolowitz, Raj Koothrapali and Leonard. In spite of all that has happened since, I still remember that vigil very distinctly, one of the curses of having an eidetic memory. Howard moved about, invisible but audible. And looking through the telescope, one observed the planet Mars: it seemed such a little thing, so bright and small but still, faintly marked with transverse stripes. As I watched, I noticed three faint green coloured points of light; all around it was the darkness of empty space. You know: the type of blackness that you get on a frosty starlight night. It looked almost like a jet of gas, flying through the night sky. What I was unaware of at the time was that this was the first of the invaders ships which would bring so much death and calamity to Earth. I never dreamed of it then, it was only the stuff of the sci-fi programmes I have watched my entire life. That night, there was another jet of gas followed by another, and that is how it was for the next twelve nights. Howard was fascinated; he had only recently returned from space and informed us all that he had never seen anything like it, even from the windows of his space station. He was full of speculation and we all scoffed at the awesome idea of it being the inhabitants of a distant world who were signalling us. I did however point out to them all that the chances of anything coming from another world in such a manner were bordering on being a million to one!

One night, when the first of the invader's ships could scarcely have been 10,000,000 miles from Earth, I went for an evening walk with my neighbour and good friend Penny. She was attempting to explain the signs of the zodiac to me and she must have realised that I was about to give her my usual reply of what a load of hokum it all is when she pointed out that the bright dot of light in the night sky was the planet Mars. I have to hand it to my neighbour; she really knows her sky at night. We could hear the sound of shunting trains coming from the nearby marshalling yard; Penny pointed out how bright the red, yellow and green signals looked hanging in the framework of the large signal gantry which stretched across all 12 tracks, and I explained the principles behind railway signalling systems. I doubt she was interested but it was much better than discussing how your life is all mapped out for you depending on the location of various stars in the sky!

One thing I do recall about that night was how much everything that night, seemed so safe and tranquil.


	2. Chapter 2: The Falling Star

**Chapter Two: The Falling Star**

Then came the night of the first "falling star". It was seen quite clearly during the evening rush hour over Pasadena: a line of flame, high in the Earth's atmosphere. Hundreds of people must have seen it but presumed it to be just an ordinary falling star, an asteroid entering the atmosphere and burning up on its decent. It was bright green in colour and drawing a green mist behind it. It glowed for a few seconds. Howard, the greatest authority on space junk amongst our group, stated that the height of its first appearance was too big to have been an asteroid and the impact too small for an object of that size! I was at home that night, working on my string theory; I now find it ironic that whilst I was trying to solve the mysteries of the universe, creatures from another world had landed here on Earth.

But very early in the morning, poor Penny, who had witnessed the falling star on her way home from work, was knocking on my door. Penny was quite clear that no one was to disturb her before 1100, so I was shocked to see her at my door so early. She was scared half to death, shaking and informed myself and Leonard that she had seen the falling star and had not been able to sleep a wink, having a gut instinct that something was not quite right about it. I informed her of the same facts I had stated the previous night about the chances of anything coming from space in this manner was a million to one. "But still they come", shouted Leonard, who had been woken up by Penny's frantic knocking on our door at this ungodly hour!

The three of us grabbed our coats and set of in search of the strange falling star which had fallen that night. Curious as I was about this mysterious object, I also hated to see Penny so wound up and wished nothing more than to put her mind at ease.

Soon after dawn, we set off with the idea of finding it. Find it we did: not far from the park, an enormous hole had been made by the impact of the projectile, and the sand and gravel of the park had been flung violently in every direction forming heaps visible almost miles away. Penny stopped in her tracks; visibly trembling, she grabbed my arm. I jumped; I am not one to care for physical human contact. I'm certain she noticed me stiffen up, but she refused to let go and held onto my arm as if her life depended on it. Leonard put his arm around her, but still she held on tight to my arm. We walked closer to the park, the trees were on fire eastward and a thin blue smoke rose against the dawn.

The object itself lay almost entirely buried in the ground. The uncovered part had the appearance of a huge metallic cylinder. It had the diameter of around thirty feet. We approached the mass and were surprised to see Kripke there. The object was still hot from its flight so nobody was able to approach it for a closer look. There was a stirring noise coming from inside the cylinder, I dismissed it as the noise which would be normal for a metal cooling down its surface. At this time it had not occurred to me that it may actually be hollow. Penny kept her grasp on my arm and was looking increasingly more agitated. "We need to get out of here", she whispered. "Something isn't right, I don't like this… Sheldon, please can we leave." I detected the desperation and panic in her voice, so Penny, myself and Leonard left Kripke to it and headed towards the trees where we could still observe, but from a distance of which Penny felt safer with.

Kripke remained standing at the edge of the pit that the cylinder had made for itself, just staring at its odd appearance. He was astonished at the object's odd shape and colour; he even considered that there was some design to the strange object. A few other scientists from the university had appeared and joined Kripke in the pit. One of them pointed at the grey clinker which covered the cylinder; it was falling off the circular edge of the end. It was dropping off in flakes and raining down on the ground below. A large piece suddenly came off and fell with a sharp noise which made even Leonard jump. Penny buried her head in my chest, trying to hide the tears falling down her cheeks. I wished she would let go of me. Leonard had his arm around her, so why did she have to hold on to my arm; she knew I did not like to be touched. I'm a man of science, not somebody's snuggle buddy!

For a moment, Kripke had not noticed what the falling clinker meant and, although the heat was excessive, he clambered down into the pit, to get a better look of the whole thing. He considered then that the cooling of the body might account for this, but this idea was disturbed by the fact that the ash and clinker was only falling from the end of the cylinder. Then he suddenly realised that very, very slowly, the circular end of the cylinder was rotating on its body. It was such a gradual motion that he only realised when he observed that a black mark which had been on the top of the cylinder was now clearly visible at the bottom. He heard a muffled grating sound and observed the black mark surge forward a good few inches. Then it dawned on him all of a sudden, whatever this object was, it was hollow, with an end which screwed out! Something inside was unscrewing the top… Penny trembled and I thought I was about to lose the blood supply to my right arm, she was holding onto it that tight. She was visibly shaking; nothing neither me nor Leonard could do or say would calm her down. She kept repeating "I don't like this, I don't like this one bit… something is very very wrong."

"Oh dear lord", I heard Kripke shout. "There's life in there…. Possibly half roasted to death given that crash landing." As if there had been a great mental leap, I instantly linked the cylinder with the flashes in the night sky which we had observed. The thought of a confined creature was such a dreadful one to Kripke and he went forward towards the object, but he had forgotten about the heat; luckily the dull radiation stopped him before he could burn himself on the still glowing metal. At that he stood, thoughtful for a moment then turned, scrambled out of the pit and set of running towards Pasadena city. The time must have been about six o'clock; I thought about how I was going to miss Doctor Who, but who cares when you potentially have a real life unidentified object right here in front of you!

None of us knew where Kripke had run off to but he returned to the pit about ten minutes later, accompanied by Leslie Winkle. "Good lord!" we heard her shout when she observed the cylinder for the first time. "It's a cylinder, an artificial cylinder and there's something inside." Kripke filled her in with the morning's happenings. Winkle stood there with a shovel in her hand; she stood for a moment trying to take everything in. A thin circle of bright white metal now showed between the top and the body of the cylinder. Air was either entering or leaving the rim with a loud hissing noise. They listened, banging on the side of the cylinder with a stick and been met with no response. Of course, the two of them were unable to do anything. They kept shouting at the cylinder, although I could not fathom out why: the chances of any alien life actually speaking the same language as anybody on our own planet was remotely slim. Winkle appeared to put it down to a lost cause and left the pit; I overheard her informing Kripke that she was going to the nearby railway station to collect a morning paper.

By eight o'clock a number of passers-by had formed a crowd around the cylinder. The three of us remained at our post, hidden away in the tree-line, where Penny felt safer. She wished to observe the events which were unfolding, but she did not wish to be anywhere near the strange object which had fallen from the sky the previous night!


	3. Chapter 3: Pasedena's Horsell Common

**Chapter Three: On Pasadena's Horsell Common**

After much objection from Penny, I walked down to get a better look the cylinder from the pit. When I got there, I found a little crowd of perhaps twenty of so people surrounding the huge hole in which the cylinder laid. No doubt the impact of this colossal object had caused the green flash in the sky which I observed through my telescope. Kripke and Winkle were nowhere to be seen; I drew the conclusion that they had gone to work, feeling that there was nothing that could be done for the present.

There were four or five teenage boys sitting on the edge of the pit with their feet dangling down, amusing themselves by throwing stones at the cylinder; that is until I told them to lay off it. They laughed at me, although I fail to see what was so funny!

Among the crowd which had gathered there were a couple of cyclists and my assistant, Alex, who waved as soon as she saw me. I scowled back at her: I was paying her to work, not ogle at an alien cylinder! There was a young girl carrying a baby, and a few grad students from the university. There was very little talking, which suited me, as I do not care for idle chit chat. Few of the common people in the United States had anything but the vaguest astronomical understanding and, listening to the tiny bit of conversation which was going on, I could not help but roll my eyes.

I observed the strange metal which this cylinder was made up from. It required a certain amount of scientific education to perceive that the grey scale of the cylinder was no common oxide; the yellowish-white coloured metal that gleamed in the crack between the lid and the rest of the cylinder had a somewhat "extra-terrestrial" look about it, although that term seemed to have little apparent meaning to the commoners throwing rocks at the thing!

At the time, it was quite clear in my mind that this cylinder had come from an alien world; I however judged that it was more than likely improbable that it contained any alien life. I have watched Star Trek all my life and I most certainly believed that we were not alone in the universe, but a red hot cylinder in the middle of Passenda Horsell Common park was certainly not how I would have imagined any intelligent life form travelling. My mind ran fancifully on the probability that the cylinder contained a manuscript; it then dawned on me that translating it wasn't going to be an easy task. I wondered to myself whether we would find coins or models in it, any blueprints for new technology and so forth. Yet in the back of my mind, I still considered that it was a little too large an object to contain such things. I was feeling impatient now and it felt as though I was almost willing it to hurry up and open!

I walked back to Penny and Leonard. Penny appeared to have calmed down now and was sat with her legs crossed, chatting to Leonard about the possibilities regarding the strange object on the common. We walked back to the apartment together, full of such thoughts. I tried to get back to working on my String Theory but I found it difficult to get to work upon my abstract investigations.

In the early afternoon, Leonard and I returned to the common. Penny felt reassured enough to remain at home; since nothing had happened all day she figured she would stay in and wash her hair. The appearance of the common had altered considerably since the morning. The early editions of the evening papers had covered the landing on the common: on their headlines

"A MESSAGE RECEIVED FROM OUTTA SPACE" said the headlines!

It was a glaringly hot afternoon in Pasadena, California; there was not a cloud in the sky nor a breath of wind, and the only shadow was from that of the trees on the edge of the park where Penny, Leonard and I had taken refuge earlier. The burning trees had been extinguished but the level ground was blackened from the fires.

Walking towards the edge of the pit, I found it occupied by a small group of scientists from the university. Kripke and Winkle were amongst them.

A large portion on the cylinder had been uncovered; obviously Winkle had been busy all afternoon with her shovel. As soon as Kripke spotted me standing on the edge of the pit he started heckling me about my earlier retreat to the trees. Winkle came running up: "What's up Doctor Dumbass; managed to find your way out of the trees?" I just glared at her with the look that would have exploded her head if I had really put my mind to it.

The scientist shouted that the crowds of teenagers who were causing mischief around the pit were becoming a serious impediment to their excavations and demanded that a fence be erected about the pit.

Since Winkle and Kripke continued to taunt me about my earlier retreat to the trees, I decided that there was no point in hanging around so I headed home to inform Penny that there was no change to the situation in the pit.


	4. Chapter 4:The Cylinder Opens

**Chapter Four: The Cylinder Opens**

When we returned to the common, the sun was setting. The crowds around the pit had increased further; there were a couple of hundred people there, at least, now. There were raised voices and some sort of struggle was going on around the base of the pit. Strange thoughts passed through my mind and Leonard just looked at me with a concerned look in his eyes. We made our way closer and as we got nearer I heard Winkle's voice: "Keep back, keep back… I have a shovel and I know how to use it", she spouted, as a teenager came running towards us. "It's moving", he shouted as he ran by, pushing past me and Leonard. "I'm outta here", he screamed.

Leonard and I went on to the crowd; everybody was elbowing and jostling east other, behaviour which I did not care for, and I hate crowds at the best of times. Too much chance for germs and bacteria to spread, I thought to myself.

"Take a wuck at all these idiots", Kripke said to Winkle. "Talking about idiots": he had spotted me. "Hey dumbass", Winkle shouted up to me from the pit, waving her shovel in the process.

The end of the cylinder was being screwed out from within. Leonard must have spotted this at the same time as I did because the both of us instinctively took a few steps back away from the cylinder. Somebody pushed past me to get a closer look, taking advantage of the space we had just created by stepping back. I turned around, and as I did so the screw must have come out of the cylinder, for the lid fell to the ground with a ringing concussion. I stuck my elbow into the person behind me, not realising that it was Leonard. "Ouch, watch out", he yelped. "Sorry", I whispered.

I think everyone was half expecting a man to emerge: possibly something a little unlike a terrestrial man, but in all essentials a man like Leonard and I. I know I did; I was secretly hoping that he would have pointy ears and tell us all to "live long and prosper", but I knew that was a long shot. Looking, I saw something resembling a little grey snake, billowing movements, then two luminous disk like eyes emerged; then something resembling the head of the Medusa: about the size of a bear, it coiled up out of the cylinder and withered, and I saw its clumsy body was being affected by our planet's gravity. The gravity on its home world must have been less to allow the bulk of this creature's body to stand, something which it was clearly struggling to do here. Suddenly a chill came over me and there was a loud shriek from a woman behind us; we both turned around and realised it was Penny. She must have followed us, allowing curiosity to get the better of her, despite being terrified of the cylinder on the common. She grabbed my arm again; I wish she would not do that, but I could see in her eyes how scared she was so I put my arm around her and she cowered into my body, burying her eyes into my chest as if she could watch no more. My eyes were fixed upon the cylinder still, from which other tentacles where now projecting. I saw astonishment giving place to horror on the faces of the people around me; even Leonard was looking wary eyed now. There was a general movement backwards. I saw people on the other side of the pit running off. I looked again at the cylinder, a governing terror gripped me. I stood petrified and staring. My fight or flight instincts must have been malfunctioning. Leonard had already started running back towards the trees where we had earlier taken shelter. "Sheldon, come on… we have to get away from here", he shouted. I became aware that I still had hold of Penny; tears were pouring down her terrified face.

I looked again at the thing that was sitting on top of the cylinder. Two dark-coloured eyes were looking in my direction. The mass which framed them, the head of the thing, was a round shape and it appeared to have a face. There was a mouth underneath the eyes, the lipless brim of which was slavering. A lanky looking appendage gripped the edge of the cylinder and another swayed in the air. Those who have never seen an extra-terrestrial life form before, other than in a science-fiction movie, could not even begin to imagine the strange horror of its appearance: the peculiar v-shaped mouth with its pointed upper lip, the way its eyes didn't appear to have a brow ridge, the absence of a chin and the incessant quivering of this vulgar looking mouth, the sheer mass of tentacles and the noise of it breathing in a strange atmosphere, the evident heaviness and the pain it must have been in due to the greater gravitational energy of our planet… the scariest part was those eyes, those big disk-like menacing eyes, there were monstrous. I was overcome with disgust and dread. These creatures, did not look like they had come in peace!

Suddenly the creature vanished: it had toppled over the brim of the cylinder and fallen into the pit. I heard it give a cry and forthwith another one of the creatures appeared. I turned and grabbed Penny by the arm and started running madly, dragging her behind me. "Sheldon…. I can't run as fast as you, slow down", she screamed, but I did not slow, nor did I release my hold on her. I ran startlingly and stumbling. I ran toward the trees, the same direction which Leonard had run off in. I was wishing that I had not allowed curiosity to put not only myself in danger, but Penny too. She meant more to me than I would ever admit to and all I could think about was getting her to safety.

The common was dotted with people, all running like I was doing. They had all been stood in half fascinated terror, staring at these creatures. Then with a renewed terror I looked back and saw a round black object bobbing up and down at the edge of the pit. It was the head of Kripke who was trying frantically to get out of the pit, but he was showing as a little black object against the hot western sky. Suddenly he vanished and Penny let out a shriek, I had a momentary impulse to go back and help him but my fears overruled.

Everything by this point was quite irreversible; anybody just arriving would have been amazed at the sight: over a hundred people all hiding but yet still wanting to stick around to see what happened next. I mean, it's not like these creature had done anything to harm us, we might have looked as scary to them as they did to us…


	5. Chapter 5: The Heat Ray

**Chapter Five: The Heat Ray**

After the glimpse that I had of the invaders emerging from the cylinder in which they had travelled to Earth from their home planet, light years away, a kind of fascination paralysed my actions. I remained standing knee-deep in the pond which I had apparently run straight into during my desperation to get to a safe distance from these creatures. I was a battle ground of fear and curiosity. Leonard, however, was long gone and it was just me and a terrified Penny. "Sheldon, we have to get out of here. I'm scared and I'm not afraid to admit it", she said, whilst tugging on my arm in a desperate attempt to get me to budge. "We're at a safe distance here Penny; nothing can hurt you", I reassured her, still with my arm around her shoulder. "There, there… Sheldon's here", I awkwardly said to her. I never was good with teary women: I always say the wrong thing and make it worse, so I just held her. It seemed to work as she wiped her tears away with her sleeve and smiled at me.

I did not dare go back towards the pit, but I felt a passionate longing to peer back into it. I began walking in a big curve, seeking some form of vantage point and continually looking at the pit which was hiding our visitors. "I wonder if Kripke is alright down there", Penny said, sounding quite concerned. I didn't get a chance to answer her: a thin rod had risen up from the pit, joint by joint, bearing its apex in a circular disk which spun with a light wobbling motion. "What in the hell is that thing?" Penny said.

Most of the spectators had gathered in one or two groups, evidentially, they shared the same mental conflict as me. There were a few people near me; one man I approached and then quickly realised that it was Raj. He was about to say something to me and then noticed Penny, still clinging onto my arm; he just made a squeak and looked the other way. "Really", Penny said to him. "Alien invasion and you still can't talk to me." He just blushed and shook his head. "Did you see Kripke in the pit?" Sheldon asked Raj. Raj just nodded, still unable to speak due to Penny's presence. We became silent, and stood watching for a while side by side; Penny still holding on to me and showing no signs of letting go. I gave a loud sigh but she just held tighter; I have never seen her look so scared, so I through aside my inhibitions and brought her closer towards me. It seemed to do something as she started stroking my arm; this felt strangely comforting given the circumstances. We stood like that for what seemed like hours but it was probably only a few minutes. I usually don't fancy a certain comfort in another's company but tonight felt different. I was actually glad that Penny was still with me. When I looked for Raj, he was walking back towards Pasadena.

I noticed that a few young men had approached the pit and were waving a white flag. There had been a hasty consultation and since the invaders were evidentially, in spite of their repulsive appearance, intelligent creatures, it had been resolved to show them, by approaching them with signals, that we too were intelligent. Although it did make me chuckle that Kripke was down there, as I have always deemed the man to be an idiot; I chuckled to myself.

Flutter, flutter went the flag. First to the right, and then to the left. It was far too far away for me to actually recognise anybody there, but I later discovered that Kripke and Winkle were the ones waving the flag at our visitors in an attempt at communication.

Suddenly there was a flash of light, and a quantity of luminous green coloured smoke came out of the pit in three very distinctive puffs which drove right up into the still air. This smoke, or perhaps flame would have been a better word for it, was so bright that the deep blue sky overhead seemed to darken abruptly as these puffs arose. Penny jumped and tightened her grip on me, so much so that I actually thought I was going to suffocate! At the same time a hissing sound became audible.

Beyond the pit stood Kripke and Winkle, with the white flag above their heads. Slowly the hissing passed into a humming sound, then into a long, loud, droning noise. A humped shape rose slowly out of the pit and the ghost of a green light seemed to flicker out from it followed by flashes of actual flame, a bright glare leaping from Kripke to Winkle; it was as if each of them were suddenly and momentarily turned to fire. The, by the light of their own destruction, I saw them staggering and falling as the crowds began to run….

Penny and I stood staring, not yet realising that it was a death leaping from person to person in that distant crowd. All I felt was that it was something very strange: an almost noiseless and blinding flash of light. Penny screamed as a man fell headlong and lay still and, as an unseen ray of heat passed over them, the trees burst into flames and every bush became, with one dull thud, a mass of flames. Far in the distance, I saw the flashes of trees and buildings suddenly set alight.

This mysterious flame death was sweeping around swiftly and steadily, and then I perceived it coming towards me and Penny. I was too astounded and stupefied to run, but this time Penny grabbed hold of my arm and dragged me into a frantic sprint for our lives. All of this had happened with such swiftness that I hadn't even had chance to process what was taking place. All I know was that Penny had hold of me and she wasn't going to allow me to succumb to this strange and mysterious death.

Once we had reached a safe distance from the cylinder and the invaders' heat ray, Penny collapsed in a heap; still holding onto my arm, she dragged me down with her. Both of us were gasping for breath; never in my life had I ever had to run like that before, not even from bullies. "Penny, you saved me… thank you", I said to her. "You're welcome, sweetie", she simply replied, still trying to catch her breath

When we had regained our breath, we stood… weeping silently whilst walking back to our apartment; once we had turned away from the common, neither of us dare look back…


	6. Chapter 6: How We Reached Home

**Chapter Six: How We Got Home**

It's still a matter of wonder as to how the invaders are able to kill so many people so swiftly and so silently. Many think that, in some way, they are able to conduct a laser of such an immense heat in a chamber of practically no resistance. This intense heat, that they produce in a parallel beam against the object of their choice, is by means of a polished parabolic mirror of unknown composition, much like the way a lighthouse projects a beam of light. I had once joked about building a death ray, but the reality of actually seeing one had terrified me!

That night, nearly 100 people lay under the starlight around the common, each charred and distorted beyond recognition. For the rest of the night, the entire common remained deserted as the trees were brightly ablaze.

The news of the massacre had probably reached other states by now. In Pasadena, shops had closed. People had already begun looting them. As Penny and I walked along the streets, there were people smashing shop windows and taking what they could. There were policemen trying to do the best they could, but the population was beginning to panic and any attempt at maintaining order was proving futile. We kept walking silently and weeping. I had my arm around Penny; she just stared ahead, traumatised by what she had witnessed. I started to feel bad about putting her through it; it was my fault she saw Kripke and Winkle burn: if I had just ran along with Leonard then she would have been spared those images. It was selfish of me to let curiosity get the better of me, but what the hell: I needed to know what was going on. Penny must have noticed that something was troubling me as she held me tightly and attempted a smile from the corner of her mouth.

In the distance we heard more screams: the heat ray had started again. There were shrieks and shouts, and then suddenly a police car went racing by; the policeman driving it had his hands collapsed over his head screaming: the heat ray had hit his patrol car.

"They're coming", a woman screamed, and incontinently everyone was turning and pushing at those behind in order to clear their way to Pasadena again. They were bolting as blindly as a flock of sheep. Where the road grew narrow and black between the streets, the crowd jammed and a desperate struggle occurred. Not everyone was able to escape the crush, at least three persons must have been crushed in that stampede but the crowds pushed on, each and every one of them desperate to escape the invaders and survive.

For my own part, and despite my eidetic memory, I remember very little about the rest of our journey home. All about me gathered the invisible terrors of the invaders, that heat ray and the fact that two of my colleagues were now dead because of it.

We got the end of our block; at last I could go no further: I was exhausted and looked at Penny, and I wasn't the only one. I was exhausted with the violence of my emotion and my flight. I had frozen and if it weren't for Penny, I probably would have died at the hands of that ghastly heat ray. I fell over and lay still. Penny came running over to me: "Sheldon, what's up… sweetie, talk to me." I felt weak, all I could do was sob; this isn't what grown men do, especially men with an IQ of 187! Penny must have realised that it was mental exhaustion which had caused me to collapse in a heap on the street and she grabbed her mobile phone and dialled. "Pick up, please pick up", she muttered. "Hello", said Leonard. "Oh thank god, you're okay…. Sheldon has collapsed…. No he's okay, just exhausted", she reassured him. "I just need a hand scooping him up off the street." A few moments later, Leonard came running down the street. "Come on buddy, we need to get you back to the apartment." The pair of them helped lift me up and I used what little strength I could find to assist them; I dare say that I staggered drunkenly. "Poor Winkle and Kripke", I sobbed. "They didn't deserve to die like that." Somehow, Penny and Leonard managed to get me up the stairs to the safety of our apartment. I went straight to my room and fell into a dark, tormented sleep…


	7. Chapter 7: Friday Night

**Chapter Seven: Friday Night**

The most extraordinary thing, to my mind, was that of all the strange and alarming events which had taken place on that Friday night in Pasadena, California, was the dwindling, commonplace habits of our social order with the first of the events which were to topple that social order headlong. The shops of Pasadena had already been looted by the frenzied folk who had either witnessed the power of the invaders' heat ray device upon Horsell Common that evening or had heard about it. The population had panicked and reacted in the only way known to man, once the instinct to survive had kicked in. You could have taken a pair of compasses and drawn a circle with a radius of five miles around the Park called Horsall Common; I doubt if you would have seen one human being outside of it, unless it were some relation to Kripke, Winkle or any of the other poor souls who had perished in that initial attack.

Despite the recent events on the common, the daily routine of the people continued: children were still being put to bed, young people were wondering through the streets in their social groups and students were still sat over their books. It seems absurd to me now that we didn't pack our bags and run that very night. I guess that, in some logical part of my Vulcan brain, I assumed that the government would have this all under control pretty soon. It's not good to assume, I know, but there was no mention that any invaders had landed anywhere in the world other than Pasadena; they should be pretty easy to deal with right?

Now and again, like the heat ray that had brought so much death to the common, a bright light, much like the beam of a warship's searchlight swept the common… and the heat ray was ready to follow. Other than that, a big area of the common was silent and desolate and the charred bodies remained upon in under the night sky, nobody daring go near the pit to retrieve them. A noise of hammering could be heard coming from the pit where the invaders' craft had crashed. All night long, the invaders were hammering and stirring, sleepless, indefatigable, at work upon the machines that they were building, and every now and again a puff of greenish-white smoke could be seen whirling up into the star-lit sky.

At about twenty-three hundred hours, the armed forces showed up at the common and deployed along the edge of the park to make a cordon. Later, a second brigade joined them and deployed on the north side of the park. Several officers had been on the common earlier that day, and one had been reported to be missing. The colonel of the regiment had been busy questioning people all afternoon to try and determine the whereabouts of his missing man. The military authorities were certainly awake to the seriousness of the events.

Just after midnight that same evening, a crowd of revellers leaving a nightclub in Los Angeles saw a star falling from the night sky onto the beach in the north-west. It had a greenish colour and caused a silent brightness like a bolt of lightning, drawing a green mist behind it…. This was the second of the invader's craft to arrive on Earth….


	8. Chapter 8: The Fighting Begins

**Chapter Eight: The Fighting Begins**

Saturday lives in my eidetic memory as a day of suspense. It was a day of lassitude too: hot and very humid with a rapidly fluctuating barometer. I had slept very little, although Leonard had succeeded very well in sleeping and had somehow managed to oversleep and missed his slot in the bathroom schedule. It seems laughable to me now, but then again he had not witnessed the horror on the common and seen the heat ray first hand. He would have been fascinated given his expertise in the field of lasers, although I would never allow him to know that I found a use for his field of research. I went across the hall to Penny's apartment and knocked three times, then called her name: "knock knock knock, Penny." I repeated this three times as I always did….

"Hey Sheldon" she answered; she looked terrible, like she had not slept a wink of sleep all night. I could relate to that, and it was not surprising given everything we had witnessed on the common. She opened the door to let me into her apartment. When she had closed the door behind me she turned to me and wrapped her arms around me in a desperate embrace. I stood there for a moment, either from shock or not being a fan of this sort of physical contact – or even both. After a few seconds of realising that she was not going to release her grip on me, I wrapped my arms around her and she sobbed into my chest. "Penny, what's wrong?" I asked, as if the answer was not obvious to me. "I couldn't sleep, Sheldon", she answered. "Every time I closed my eyes, all I could see was Kripke and Winkle and that awful weapon," she continued to sob. "All those people in the park, it was so close to us; I couldn't help but thinking that it could have been you burning there: you didn't run from it…. I thought I was going to lose you, my best friend and…." She stopped. "Oh Penny, there was nothing that anybody could have done to help Kripke, Winkle or anybody there; they were too close to the pit, they should have stayed back. If anybody is to blame then it is them for being so close to an unidentified alien object," I replied. "In fact, I am more disappointed at the fact that none of these aliens resemble Spock, and I picked up a distinct lack of the TARDIS in that park." She giggled: "Oh moon-pie… you know those are characters in a science fiction show, right?" she replied, as if she actually thought that I believed these characters to be real…. "Next you'll be saying that you want Batman to show up and save the world", she chuckled. "You know, with the right investment capital and a secret lair, I could be Batman, right?" I joked. "So Shelly-Bean Cooper is going to save the day?" she replied. "Shhhhh…. I'm Batman", I laughed.

After a while, Penny appeared to feel much better, so I returned to my apartment to scoff my breakfast. It was a most exceptional morning. Leonard was finally awake, and I envied him for been able to sleep that night. He seemed full of optimism that the troops would be able to capture the invaders or destroy their craft during the day. "It's a pity that they make themselves so unapproachable", he commented. I almost spat my orange juice all over the worktop. "It would be curious to know how they live on their planet: we might be able to learn a few things from them", he continued. A news bulletin interrupted the normal broadcasting on the television. They were saying that another one of those damned things had fallen in Los Angeles. "That's going to cost a lot of insurance if it's landed near Beverley Hills", Leonard joked with an air of humour as he drank his morning coffee.

After breakfast, Leonard and I made our way to work in Leonard's car. We decided to go past the common where we came across the military. There were a few young men with their small round caps, dirty red jackets which were unbuttoned showing their blue shirts and dark trousers with boots coming to their calves. They had formed a blockade and were not letting anybody into the park at all. We overheard them saying that any proximity to the invaders craft was disabling all of their equipment. "They do know that modern naval ships are equipped with laser guided/heat seeking missiles which would easily take out that craft on the common", I said rather loudly, pretending that I was talking to Leonard, but my real goal was to ensure that the soldiers heard me. "They wouldn't even have to get that close to take them out", I continued; Leonard threw them an apologetic look and dragged me away. "Come on Sheldon, let's get to work and leave them to do theirs", he said, dragging me away.

I will not bore the reader with a description of that long morning. I did not succeed in getting another glimpse of the invaders lair; the soldiers we saw clearly knew nothing if they thought that the invaders could not be stopped using heat seeking missiles and to be quite honest, I felt a lot safer knowing that the military were finally present and I was sure that they would be drawing up their own plans against the invasion and putting them into action soon enough. I must confess that the sight of all this armament, all this preparation greatly excited me. My imagination became belligerent and I had defeated the invaders in dozens of striking ways; something of a school-boy dream of battle and heroism which I thrived at the thought of.

That evening Leonard, Raj, Howard and his wife Bernadette, Penny and Amy Farrah-Fowler were all at mine and Leonard's apartment watching television when we heard an almighty bang. It felt like an Earthquake: a few things in our apartment shook, but nothing to suggest that the Earth's tectonic plates were moving. We ran to the window to see if we could see anything, and to my horror I observed that the buildings which once stood opposite our own had been reduced to nothing more than a pile of rubble. Penny gripped my arm, as she must have realised at the same time as me that we could now clearly see the park from our window. This could only mean one thing: that our apartment was now in full view and range of the invaders' deadly heat ray. Amy, who had not been at the common to witness the full horror of the invaders' device, was throwing her bestie daggered looks for holding onto my arm, for although Amy and I had terminated our relationship agreement some time ago, I believe that she still held out some form of hope that I would be the boyfriend she longed for.

It was at this moment that I knew that we all had to get to safety; if we didn't move now and the invaders triggered that device again, we would all succumb to the same horrid death as Kripke and Winkle had previously. I turned to Penny and shouted that she should run back to her apartment and pack a few essentials; Leonard must have read my mind as he had already made a start on gathering most of the food that we had in our apartment. Howard and Bernadette informed me that they were going to do the same, and that we would meet by the river at the other side of town. Amy and Raj were already making their way out of the door, Amy looking quite distressed at something.

I explained hastily that we had to leave our home. Once we had grabbed the basic survival essentials, we secured the door. At this time, it didn't seem anywhere near as urgent to any of the others who had not witnessed the heat ray first hand on the common and knew what destruction that weapon could cause. At the same time as I secured the door to mine and Leonard's apartment, Penny was doing the same to hers, having grabbed the essentials for a few days away. The three of us jumped into Leonard's car and headed off for the rendezvous point near the river. The road was dotted with people running towards us. There were thick streamers of black smoke driving up into the still air; the tree line in the distance appeared to be burning with a slight green glow. "The invaders…", said Leonard. "They must have set off their weapon again", I replied with a certain degree of panic…. "Not again": Penny sounded concerned. "We can't go that way", I informed Leonard as he turned around to drive in the same direction as the people in the street were running...


	9. Chapter 9: In The Storm

**Chapter Nine: In The Storm**

Los Angeles is about twelve miles from Pasadena. The scent of death was in the air and the trees on the side of the road were burning. The heavy firing,which had broken out whilst we were driving down Los Robles Avenue away from our apartment block, had ceased as abruptly as it had begun, leaving the evening warily peaceful and still. We reached the end of the town centre and noticed that almost every shop on the high street had been looted. Penny was curiously silent throughout the drive, and seemed oppressed by forebodings of evil. I talked to her reassuringly, pointing out that the invaders were tied to their pit in the common due to their sheer heaviness here on Earth due to the gravitational energy differing from their own, but she answered only in monosyllables. Had it not been for my promise to the others that we would rendezvous near the river, then I think I would have found the three of us a quick way out of California and away from these invaders.

For my own part, I had been feverishly terrified all day, although I was trying not to show it so as not to alarm Penny. Something very like the war-fever which occasionally runs through a civilised community, I felt a strong need to protect my friend, and in my heart I was feeling so very, very sorry that I had scared her with my weakness and my inability to run from the heat ray on Horsall Common when the invaders attacked. I was even afraid that the fusillade that we had heard might mean the extermination of our military.

A moderate incline runs towards the foot of Woodbury Road, and down this hill we clattered. Once the lightning had begun, it went on in as rapid a succession of flashes as I have ever seen in all my life. The thunder had a strange crackling accompaniment, and sounded more like the working of a gigantic electrical machine than the usual sound of a thunderstorm. The flickering light was both blinding and confusing.

At first, I regarded little but the road before us, but then my attention was abruptly arrested by something which was moving rapidly down the opposite lane of Woodbury Road. At first, I mistook it for the wet roof of a bus, but one flash following another showed it to be in a swift rolling movement. In a great flash this problematic object came out clean and clear and bright...

This thing that I saw: how to describe it? It was a monstrous looking tripod structure, higher than any of the houses around it, striding over the trees which lined the road, smashing everything aside as it moved: a walking engine of shimmering metal. Striding now across the central reservation, articulate ropes of steel dangling from it like the tentacles on the invaders themselves, the clattering tumult of its passage mingling with the riot of the thunder. Another flash as it came into view vividly then disappeared in the dead of the night. Another flash, and it seemed to reappear, almost instantly it seemed, 100 feet nearer.

Then, suddenly, the trees along the side of the road, right next to where we were driving, were parted; they were driven off head on. In a second, another tripod appeared, rushing headlong towards us – and we were driving headlong towards them! At the sight of the second tripod, Penny's nerve went altogether; not looking at the mighty metal machine ahead of us, I dived into the back seat where Penny was sitting and scooped her into my arms. She was sobbing uncontrollably and, since Leonard was driving, somebody needed to be there for her. Leonard turned the car sharply; I was flung sideways but Penny grabbed hold of me to stop me hurting myself. She buckled me into the rear seatbelt next to her and grabbed hold of my hand. "Something tells me we're going to need these", she said, tapping her seatbelt with her free hand.

The brazen hood of the machine moved to and fro with the inevitable suggestion of a head looking about. Behind the main body was a large mass of white metal which resembled a huge lobster net, and puffs of green smoke squirted out from the joints of the limbs as the metal monster swept by us; in an instant it was gone... greeted by a sigh of relief from all three of us: we had had a lucky escape.

As the tripod passed by, it sounded with a deafening howl that drowned out even the thunder. "ULLAH ULLAH", it screamed, and in a minute it was joined by its companion. In the distance, we saw another of the cylinders which we know to be the invaders craft: another ship had landed on Earth.


	10. Chapter 10: The Comic Book Store

**_this was originally meant to be part of the previous chapter but i felt it belonged in it's own. poor Sheldon, he hates change and is starting to have the realisation that things are never going to be the same again... not sure what Amy is going to think to Penny and Sheldon's "closeness" though! ;-))_**

**Chapter Ten: The Comic Book Store**

There in the darkness, as we continued our drive down Woodbury Road, the passing of the monstrous tripods which appeared to be scouting the area seemed to have affected Leonard's car as we stalled, and no amount of effort from Leonard could make the car re-start. I thought back to the conversation that I had overheard between the two soldiers at Horsell Common, and suggested to my companions that somehow the invaders were able to render our machinery a failure, and that this must stretch to transportation also. A few moments after we had been brought to our unexplained halt, a man blundered into us and was sent reeling back as he bounced off the bonnet of the car. The man gave a cry of terror, got up from the road and rushed off before any of us had a chance to talk to him. Noticing that the man was Stuart from the comic book store, we jumped out of the car and went on after him. He had ran full pelt into his store; we went up close to the doorway. Just in front of the door, I stumbled upon something soft and, by the flash of lightning, saw between my feet a heap of clothing and a pair of boots. Before I could distinguish clearly how the man lay, the flicker of light had passed. I stood over him waiting for the next flash: when it came, I saw that it was a sturdy man, cheaply but not shabbily dressed. He lay crumbled up close to the door, as though he had been thrown violently against it.

Overcoming the repugnance natural to one who had never before touched a dead body, Leonard turned him over to feel for a pulse. He was quite dead: Leonard pointed out that his neck had been broken. The lightning flashed for a third time and his face leaped upon me. Leonard sprang to his feet: it was Professor Gablehauser, the head of the physics department at Caltech, and mine and Leonard's boss.

We stepped over him gingerly and pushed our way into the store. The looters hadn't touched the comic book store. We let ourselves in, then closed and locked the door and bolted it shut. I ran to the corner near the toy robots and sat down on the floor; my imagination was full of those monsters and of the dead body of Professor Gablehauser lying outside the store. I crouched in the corner with my back to the wall, shivering violently. Penny came over, crouched down with me and threw her arms around me; I could see she was also crying, but I'm unsure as to whether those tears were more through fear of seeing me in such a mental state. Leonard stated that he was going to look for Stuart and make sure that he was ok, leaving Penny and I alone.


	11. Chapter 11: At The Window

**Chapter Eleven: At The Window**

It was about five minutes until Leonard returned from the basement of the comic book store, but I was not looking at anyone else but Penny: my neighbour, my best friend and the one person I trust the most in the entire world, the one person who helps me navigate through my daily life, the person I love more than I've ever loved anyone else, except maybe my Meemaw. Penny has always been here for me. She is so strong and perfect she takes my breath away, although none of this I would ever admit.

"Sheldon", she whispered, "you wear all these superhero shirts sweetie, but when the time comes for you to be a hero, you fall to pieces... we need you right now, I need you to be MY hero." it was as if she had looked deep into my metaphorical soul and retrieved the one emotion I had buried deep inside myself: could it actually be that she felt the same way for me as I did for her?! I instantly dismissed the thought: Penny saw me as a friend, nothing more and nothing less. "I'll be ok", I replied, "it's just the shock of seeing three of my colleagues dead in the space of 24 hours, it's a lot to take in." Penny leaned in towards me and her lips met my forehead; she kissed me gently and in that instant, I knew that I had to compose myself and help ensure the survival of my friends, of Penny.

I have already said that my storms of emotion have a trick of exhausting themselves. After a time, I realised that I was cold and wet, and as a result of this there were little pools of water about me and Penny on the floor of the comic book store. I got up almost mechanically and made my way over to the t-shirts neatly stacked in the rack nearby. I picked out a red flash shirt in my size and quickly changed into it, leaving the money on the counter as I refused to become classified as a looter. After I had done that, I followed Leonard and Penny down the stairs to the basement of the store, where Leonard had informed us that Stuart had taken refuge.

The thunderstorm had passed; I looked out of the tiny window in the basement and could see huge black shapes, grotesque and strange, busily moving to and fro. It seemed as though the whole county in that direction was on fire. Every now and then, a haze of smoke passed by the window and hid the invaders' shapes. I could not make out what they were doing, nor could I recognise the task upon which they were busied. The light upon the nearby railway puzzled me at first; there was a black heap and a vivid glare, then I perceived this was a wrecked train: the fore part was smashed up and on fire, with the hinder carriages still sitting on the rails. I shuddered. At first, I could not distinguish any people at all, though I kept on looking for any sign of life. Later I saw, against the light of the railway station, a number of figures hurrying one after another across the railway tracks.

This was the world in which I had been living safely and securely for years, this now fiery chaos! What had happened in the last few hours, the scene from this tiny window, resembled something from 'Battle: Los Angeles' or any other apocalyptic science fiction movie.

The invaders seemed amazingly busy: I started to ask myself what they could be. Were they some form of intelligent mechanism, or did an invader sit within them, ruling and directing it in much the same way as a person directs their body? I began to compare these things to manmade machines such as steam locomotives: is this how they looked to the lower life forms of Earth?

The storm had passed completely now and had left the night sky clear, and, over the smoke of the burning landscape, I could see the twinkling of the stars in the sky, distant balls of burning gas, millions and millions of light years away from our solar system. I wondered to myself which one of these the invaders called home. I heard a slight scraping from the other side of the basement, and forced myself to stand despite the lethargy which had fallen upon me. I looked over and saw him dimly, clambering over an old stand which had once stood in the store. "Shhhh...", I begged in a whisper. He stopped astride the stand in doubt, then he came over and across the basement towards me; he bent down and stepped softly.

"My god", said Stuart, as he noticed the view from the tiny window. "What happened?" I asked. "What hasn't?" he replied. In the obscurity, I could tell he had made an unwanted gesture of despair. "They wiped us out, simply wiped us all out", he repeated. I thought back to the awful events in the park and the poor professor lying in front of store. He followed me, almost mechanically, as I walked away from the window. "Take some water", he said, handing me a bottle. I drank it, then, abruptly, he sat down on the floor, put his head in his hands and began to sob and weep like a little boy, in a perfect passion of emotion, while I, with a curious forgetfulness of my own despair, stood beside him, wondering.

It was a long time before he was able to steady his nerves and answer our questions, and even then he answered brokenly. He said he'd gone to the park to see the invaders for himself. He said he'd witnessed the invaders slowly crawling towards their second cylinder, under the cover of a metal shield. Later, he said, this shield had staggered up onto tripod legs and quickly became the first of the fighting machines that we had witnessed on Woodbury Road. He said that the military brigades had fired upon it, but were only able to get their guns to fired once before they jammed and were rendered useless. At the same moment that the ammunition blew up, there was fire all about him and he said that he found himself lying under a heap of charred men and soldiers. "I lay still", he said, "scared out of my wits, with the charred corpse of what resembled a dead general on top of me. They had been wiped out; their weapons rendered useless against whatever technology those invaders are using. And the smell: it smelt like burnt meat. I had hurt myself in the fall and had to lay there until I felt better. It was probably this that saved my life", he sobbed. "The invaders scouted the area for survivors; anyone they found alive was scooped up and placed into the baskets on the top of the machines", he informed us. The machine had risen to its feet and had begun to walk leisurely across the park among the ones who tried to flee, with its head-like hood turning about exactly like the head of a human being. Each of these machines, Stuart explained, was equipped with its own deadly heat ray.

And that was the story that we got from him, bit by bit. He grew calmer after talking to us about it and trying to make sense of the things that he had seen. We dared not turn any lights on in that basement for fear of attracting any of the invaders.

When we had finished talking, we moved softly back towards the window. In the night, the alley had become an alley of ashes. The fires had dwindled now: where the flames had been, there were now nothing more than streams of smoke, but the countless ruins of gutted houses and buildings and blasted and blackened trees that the night had hidden stood out now, gaunt and terrible in the bright light of dawn. Some objects had the luck to survive: there was a white railway signal still showing its red aspect amid the wreckage. Never before, in the known history of destruction, had warfare been so indiscriminate and universal. But, shining with the glowing light of the east, there were three of these mighty metal warlords stood about their pit, their hoods rotating as though they were marvelling at the destruction which they had caused...


	12. Chapter 12: The Destruction of Pasadena

**Chapter Twelve: The Destruction of Pasadena**

As the dawn grew brighter, I withdrew from the tiny window in the basement from which I had been watching the invaders, and went quietly up the stairs into the store. Penny and Leonard followed me.

Leonard agreed with me that the store was no place to stay. He proposed that we make our way towards the river, the original place of rendezvous at which we had all agreed to meet, and rejoin our group – if they had waited. So greatly had the strength of the invaders impressed me, that I was determined to take Penny to safety and get her out of the country forthwith. I had already perceived clearly that the great state of California must inevitably be the scene of a disaster movie before such creatures as these could be destroyed – if they could even BE destroyed.

Between the store and the river dock, however, lay the third of the invader's cylinders with its guarding giants. Had I been alone, I believe I would have taken my chance and sprinted across the county, but the need to keep Penny safe dissuaded me. We should have started at once, but Penny knew better than that: she made us ransack the store for food, water and clothes, she took an empty bottle and filled it with rum and lined her pockets with biscuits and packets of potato chips from the vending machine in the store. The four of us crept out of the store and ran so quickly down the road which we had travelled down the previous night. The houses were deserted. In the road lay a group of charred bodies close together, struck down dead by the heat ray; every now and then, we saw the things which people had dropped: a clock, a sneaker, a spoon and other poor valuables.

Excepting the WalMart at the end of the road, which was still on fire, none of the buildings had suffered very greatly here. The heat ray had shaved the roofs and passed, yet, apart from ourselves, there did not seem to be a living soul on Woodbury Road. The majority of the people had escaped, I supposed, by way of the inner-state; either that or they had hidden.

We made our way down the road to the railway without meeting a soul. The sleepers across the line were scarred and blackened ruins of wood; most of the lineside trees had fallen but a large proportion still stood, however with dark-brown foliage instead of the usual green. We all spoke in whispers and looked now and again over our shoulders; once or twice we stopped to listen.

Further on towards the inner-state we saw a convoy of soldiers marching down the road. "Bows and arrows against the lightning", Stuart mumbled: "they haven't seen the heat ray yet."

Quickly, one after another, one, two, three then four of the mighty metal warlords appeared, striding hurriedly towards the river. Advancing rapidly towards us came a fifth, their armoured bodies glittering in the sunlight as they swept forward towards the soldiers. One on the extreme left gave an almighty battle cry: "ULLAH ULLAH" is screamed, and with that came the ghostly, terrible heat ray.

At the sight of these terrifying looking machines, Penny seemed to be, for a moment, horror struck. There was no screaming or shouting, but a silence. I could feel my own heart beating so hard and fast that I thought I was going to have a cardiac arrest right there and then. Then a hoarse murmur and a movement of feet, a splashing from the water: Stuart swung around and almost sent me staggering with a blow from his desperation. I turned with the rush of the others; we needed to get under water, I thought.

"Get under water", I shouted to them. I grabbed hold of Penny, rushed towards the approaching tripod, rushed right down to the muddy river bed and headlong into the water; the others did the same. The ground underneath my feet was muddy and slippery; the river was so low that I ran perhaps twenty feet, scarcely waist deep. Then as the tripod towered overhead, nothing more than a couple of hundred yards away, I flung myself forward under the surface, dragging a terrified Penny along with me. The splashes of the others leaping into the river sounded like thunderclaps in my ears. Some of the soldiers, realising that their weapons were ineffective against the invaders' technology, had also decided to take their chances by following us into the river, but the invaders' machine took no more notice of the people running this way and that than a man would of the confusion of ants in a nest against which his foot had kicked. When I raised my head from the water, half suffocated, the tripod's hood pointed at the soldiers who were still trying to run across the river.

In another moment it was on the bank and wading halfway across the river; it had raised itself to full height. I gave a cry of astonishment, a violent explosion shook the air and a spout of water, steam and mud shattered into the air. The heat ray was aimed at the water and the latter had immediately flashed into steam. In another moment, a huge wave, like a muddy tidal wave, almost scaldingly hot, came sweeping around the bend upstream. I saw the soldiers struggling shorewards, and heard their screaming and shouting above the seething and roaring of the heat ray hitting the water.

For the moment, I heeded nothing of the heat; I even forgot the patent of self-preservation. All that I could think of was getting Penny out of there and to safety. I splashed through the tumultuous water, pushing bodies aside to do so, still holding on to Penny. Leonard shouted furiously at us and pointing. Looking back, I saw the other tripods advancing with their gigantic strides down the river bank from the direction of Pasadena. At that, I ducked at once under the water, again dragging Penny along with me; holding our breath until movement was agony, we blundered painfully under the surface for as long as we both could. The water was rapidly growing hotter.

When, for a moment, I raised my head to take a breath, and Penny threw the hair and water from her eyes, the steam was rising in a whirling white fog that, at first, hid the invaders altogether. The noise was deafening. Then I saw them dimly: the mighty metal beasts had passed by us. By the skin of our teeth, we had somehow survived. I looked around and saw Leonard running towards us. I was relieved to see my friend alive; however there was no sign of Stuart, and Leonard had no idea what had become of him.


	13. Chapter 13: How We Met With The Idiot

**Chapter Thirteen: How We Fell With The Idiot**

After getting a sudden lesson in the power of terrestrial weapons, and having had the chance to test out what we now know to be an electromagnetic pulse device, which works with an abrupt pulse of electromagnetic radiation and emits a suddenly fluctuating magnetic field. The resulting rapidly changing electric fields cause electrical or electronic systems to produce damaging current and a sudden voltage surge. This is how they were able to disable any machine that got too close to them, rendering any counter-attack against them futile. The invaders seemed to be in no apparent hurry: cylinder followed cylinder on their interplanetary flight across the galaxy to Earth; meanwhile the US army and navel authorities, now fully alive to the tremendous power of their enemies, worked furiously to find a way to disable the EMP system that the invaders were using against us.

It seems that the invaders' giant machines spent the earlier part of the afternoon transferring everything from the second and third cylinders. They appeared to be hard at work far into the night, and the towering green smoke which rose from them could be seen from the river where Penny, Leonard and I had had our narrow and, dare I say, lucky escape from the Tripods.

I saw an abandoned boat on the river's edge: very small, but big enough for the three of us; throwing off most of my sodden clothes, I went after it. There were no oars in the boat but I contrived to paddle as well as my hands would allow. I brought the boat over to where Leonard and Penny were. Leonard jumped in and gestured that he would help me paddle the boat. I took Penny's hand and helped her in. We paddled down the river towards the agreed rendezvous point, at which we had agreed to meet up with the others, going very tediously and continually looking behind us, as you may well understand. We followed the river as we all agreed that this would give us the best chance of escape should any of the tripods return.

For quite a while, we drifted, so painfully and weary we all were after the violence we had all been through. The fears got the better of me again: Penny saw the silent tear fall down my cheek and instantly moved towards me. Leonard looked concerned, but she smiled at him in a way which suggested that she would sort it. She wiped the tear away: "It's ok to be scared sweetie; we all are. Holy crap on a cracker - I'm terrified", she whispered to me as she put her arm around me in the most reassuring embrace, which only Penny was capable of. I managed a smile, and she smiled back at me with her beautiful smile.

At last, the rendezvous site was coming into view round the bend; my fever and faintness overcame my fears and I landed on the riverbank and lay down, deadly sick amid the long grass. Penny ran after me to make sure I was alright. I smiled to signal that I was fine, and then got up presently. The three of us walked about a mile without meeting a soul, and then lay down again in the shadow of the pine trees. I seem to remember us all talking, wanderingly, about how we might defeat the invaders. I was also so very thirsty, and bitterly regretful that I had not drunk any more water.

I do not clearly remember the arrival of Zack, so I had probably had dozed off under the shade of the trees. I became aware of him as a seated figure in soot-smudged clothing, with his messy brown hair looking like it had seen better days. I sat up, and at the sound of my motion he looked over at me quickly. "Have you any water?" I asked him rather abruptly. Zack was Penny's ex-boyfriend, and I had never cared too much for him. In short, the man was the biggest idiot that I had ever met. He once actually believed that we were going to blow up the moon! "You have been asking for water for the last hour", he said. For a moment we were silent, taking stock of each other. I dare say that he found me a strange fellow, naked apart from my water-soaked trousers and socks, my face and shoulders blackened by the smoke. "Penny dried your flash shirt off", he spoke abruptly, looking vacantly away from me and towards Penny who was bringing my freshly dried shirt over towards me. It became quite apparent that Penny was not too overjoyed at the appearance of her idiot ex.

"You're the genius" she shouted in mine and Leonard 's direction "what dies it mean, what do these things mean?!" I stared at him and made no answer. He extended his hands above his head and spoke in an almost complaining tone. "why are these things permitted? what sins have we done? I had been to morning service and was walking down the street to my home then BANG! fire, earthquake, death. All our work undone, what are these things?"

"Oh dear lord" i replied "here was go" muttered Leonard, I cleared my throat "you can not possibly believe that these invaders have anything to do with an imaginary deity, are you really THAT stupid to believe that these creature where sent here the devil as my mother would call it?" he gripped his knees and turned to look at me again, for half a minute he stared silently. He repeated himself "i was walking down the road and then fire, earthquake and death" he relapsed into silence with his chin now almost sunken to his knees.

"what have we done, Pasadena done... everything is gone, everything destroyed, swept out of existence, why?! " another pause and then he broke out again like someone possessed. By this time I was beginning to take his measure. The tremendous tragedy in which he had been involved, it was evident that like us, he was an evacuee from Pasadena and this had driven him to the very edge of reason. "are those creatures everywhere?" he asked in a matter of fact tone "has Earth been given up to them?" "things have changed" i said quietly, "you must try and keep your head together, there is still hope" i tried to calm him. "hope?" he said "yes, there is plenty of hope... for all this destruction" Leonard began to explain our view of our position and he listened at first but as he went on the dawning interest in his eyes gave way to their former stare and his regard wondered away again. "this must be the beginning of the end" he said, interrupting Leonard.

Leonard began to understand the situation and ceased labouring reason with Zack, he struggled to his feet and standing over him, lay his hand on his shoulder. "be a man" he said to him "you are scared, but so are we. we are all scared but what good is your religion when it fails you under calamity. Think of what the many natural disasters, floods, wars and volcanoes have done to other civilisations, do you think your deity had exempted Pasadena? he's not an insurance agent" Leonard shouted at him in a matter of fact tone. It was clear to see that Leonard was growing tired of trying to reason with a man who was so intent on blaming his god for failing him. "but how can we escape" he asked suddenly "they are invulnerable, they have that reached device which renders all our technology useless against them" "they are neither one nor the other" i shouted at him "we WILL find a way to defeat these monsters and reclaim out planet for humanity but we can not do that if you insist on drawing attention to out whereabouts with your constant shouting and screaming, now if you wouldn't mind being quiet, it would be greatly appreciated" i sat back down on the floor, shaking from my outburst, Penny gave me an appreciative grin...


	14. Chapter 14: Safe From Pasadena

**_This chapter is told from Bernadette's view point as, along with Howard, Raj and Amy, she tries to find her way back to Sheldon, Leonard and Penny..._**

**Chapter Fourteen: Safe From Pasadena**

Along with Howie, Raj and Amy, I had already left Pasadena when the invaders struck near Woodbury Road. At the time, we knew nothing about the fresh cylinders which had landed in California in the hours since we last saw Sheldon, Leonard and Penny. The morning papers contained, in addition to several lengthy special pull-outs regarding life on other planets, a brief and vaguely worded insert regarding the additional cylinders which were located nearby. It was an abomination that the tabloid newspapers felt that the usual "celebrity gossip" was more in the public interest than an alien invasion in Pasadena, California. I guess, along with us, they were largely unaware of the severity of the attack.

I felt a horrible anxiety about Sheldon: I had not been able to contact either him, Leonard, Penny since the invaders' EMP device had taken out all of the Pasadena area's telecommunications masts, rendering any attempt at cellular communications useless. I made up my mind that we would make our way to the rendezvous point and remain there until they arrived, regardless of the fact that they may never come. I knew Sheldon would be finding it hard to cope: he was never good with changes to his daily routine, and this was one hell of a change for the big dummy! The man was a genius, but he was hopeless at coping in situations like this.

We made our way past the railway station; since the EMP, when triggered, had rendered any form of modern transport immobile, the local railway museum had realised that the vintage steam engines were unaffected by this phenomenon and had brought a few of the ones which still had active boiler tickets into service to aid in the evacuation of the city. The train services were very much disorganised: quite a number of people had been expecting the full timetable, but the railway company was doing the best that they could given the limitations that their vintage rolling stock was causing. I couldn't help but think that Sheldon would have loved the sight of all these old engines: he sure did love his trains!

As we walked past the station, we met a small group of scruffy looking people with tattered clothing, their faces blackened with soot. It was then, and only then, that we realised the full terror of these monsters. We learned very quickly that they were not merely a handful of small sluggish creatures, confined to a pit in the park, but that they were minds of immeasurable power who moved around in vast mechanical bodies; we learned that they could move swiftly with such power that even the mightiest weapons of the US army could not stop them. The machines which they described were "vast spiderlike machines, nearly one hundred feet high, capable of the speed of an intercity express train and able to shoot a beam of intense heat." None of them could give us any news of Pasadena, except for one man who assured us that Pasadena had been completely destroyed. I could see a tear roll down Amy's cheek and a worried expression on her face. "They might have got out", I reassured her, not even sure of my own words.

At the time, there was a strong feeling amongst us that the authorities were to blame for not doing something sooner and, now, their inability to dispose of these aliens. At about eight o'clock, there came the sound of people screaming and heavy footsteps coming towards us; walking down through the quiet backstreets to the river, we were able to distinguish them quite clearly. We were now very anxious; Amy especially, for, although her and Sheldon had terminated their relationship agreement, as they called it, she missed him terribly; I could see, by the way that she was constantly fidgeting with her cardigan, that she was worried about him. We were becoming more aware of the evident magnitude of the situation. In my mind, I thought we should probably run; I thought of those massive metal machines that the people at the railway station had described, and shuddered.

I read and re-read the paper. If I'm honest, I feared that the worst must have happened to our friends. Amy was becoming restless, and I tried in vain to divert her attention. She wasn't just crying for Sheldon; her "bestie" Penny was with him too, and she explained how she couldn't bear the thought of losing both of them.

I heard her whispering to herself: "Sheldon, Penny, where are you...? I will not count you among the dead, not yet... but my dreams are strange and hideous... ghastly, dark and mankind swept from existence, you both swept from me, but I know, Sheldon, I know... I will not count you amongst the dead." I watched another silent tear fall down her cheek.

More people came running down the street. "They're coming", one woman screamed. "Black smoke", another man shouted, as they ran by us in a stampede. There was a grotesque mingling of panic as scores of people, panic driven, were running for their lives. It was then that we saw Howie come running; none of us had even noticed that he had sneaked off. "Those creatures are able to discharge clouds of what looks like black and poisonous vapour. They have smothered everything in their path and are heading this way", he shouted. With that, all four of us were running...


	15. Chapter 15: The Exodus To Find Friends

_"There must be something worth living for. There must be something worth trying for. Even some things worth dying for, and if one man can stand tall, there must be hope for us all. Somewhere, somewhere, in the spirit of man!"_

**Still with Bernadette and Co for this one...**

**Chapter Fifteen: The Exodus To Find Their Friends**

Just so that you can understand the roaring wave of fear that swept through each and every one of us just as Monday, or at least I think it was Monday, was dawning: try and imagine the end of the world, or at least what you think that might feel like – knowing that you will never again get to see a movie which hasn't already been made, hear a song which hasn't already been recorded or, in the case of Amy Farrah-Fowler, the strong possibility that you may never see your best friends again. Now hold that thought, and magnify it by a million. That's pretty much how we were all feeling by this point. Howie was trying to hold it together for all of us; he didn't like the fact that he had been into space and had seen nothing of the creatures which were now destroying our world.

By this day, the volunteer engine drivers and firemen who had been working the steam engines to aid the evacuation had taken their engines out of town and were refusing to come anywhere near to Pasadena. Who can blame them, really? By the afternoon, a cloud of slowly sinking black vapour drove along the river and across the land as far as I could see, cutting off all of our escape routes over the bridges. We had managed to break away from the fury of the panic, and were skirting Colorado Boulevard. We reached Glendale at about 7 'clock, famished but well ahead of the crowds. Along the road, people were standing on the sidewalk, curious and wondering. We passed by a number of cyclists and a few abandoned cars; rendered useless by the EMP, their owners had decided to dump them by the roadside and had taken off on foot.

We hadn't eaten for hours. Howie decided to loot a Wal-Mart, and succeeded in gathering some food for us all. For a time, we remained on Citrus Grove, not knowing what to do next. More people ventured down the road: the road was getting crowded. We knew that we had to push on and find our friends, if they were still alive. Each of us refused to give up hope for them.

I had walked off ahead with Amy; she was quieter than I have ever known her to be, and she explained that she felt confused about her emotions. Sheldon was no longer her boyfriend, but she still felt intensely concerned about his welfare. I explained that it was normal to feel that way; they were, after all, still very close friends.

Raj and Howie must have heard our screams, as they came hurrying around the corner to see a couple of men struggling to drag us into the trees which we had been walking past. Amy was simply screaming whilst I was trying to beat the holy crap outta the idiot, but he had hold of my arm. I was about to hit him where the sun don't shine, but Howie knocked him clean out with one swift punch. Raj went for the other one. The man whom Howie had punched turned towards him; knowing that I was in trouble, and finding some form of inner strength, he went into him forthwith and sent him down against the tree. "Yes!" I cheered. Howie laid him quite a kick, whilst Raj had grabbed the collar of the other guy but struck him between the eyes; the guy managed to get himself free. "Run", shouted Raj, wiping the blood from his split lip. We both turned without a word; we were both panting, but we did as we were told. The attackers had clearly had enough of it and, when I looked back, both of them were running off down the road. "Yeh, that's right, run, you pussies", Raj shouted after them. "Are you ladies alright?" asked Howie. "We are now, thank you", Amy replied. "We better keep together, it's not safe around here", Howie suggested. Poor Howie found himself panting, with a cut mouth, a bruised jaw and blood stained knuckles. Partly stunned about what had just happened, and side by side, we continued down the road.

As we advanced towards our rendezvous spot, an eerie murmuring sound grew louder. We also began to meet more people, looking jaded, haggard and unclean. A tall man wearing a rather dapper looking suit passed by us with his eyes to the ground; I heard his voice and, looking back at him, I saw he had one hand clutching his hair and the other beating invisible things. He reminded me of Sheldon when he gets stuck with his research; Amy must have thought the same, as I noticed her eyes welling up again when she saw him.

We decided to take a break for the afternoon: the violence of the day had been more than enough for all of us, and we were utterly exhausted. The night was cold, but none of us dared to sleep. In the evening, many people came hurrying by our rest stop, fleeing from the unknown dangers ahead of them and in the direction from which, unbeknown to us, Sheldon and Co come...


	16. Chapter 16: Friends Reunited

**Back to Sheldon for this chapter...**

**Chapter Sixteen: Friends Reunited**

If the invaders had aimed only at destruction, then they might, by Monday, have annihilated the entire population of California as they spread themselves slowly through each district. To the invaders, we must have seemed like nothing more than tiny dots; each dot full of agony, terror and physical distress. Never before, in the history of mankind, has such a mass of human beings moved and suffered together: this was no disciplined march, it was a stampede, it was without order and without a goal; six million people unarmed and un-provisioned, driving headlong. It was the beginning of the rout of civilisation, or the massacre of mankind...

The invaders do not seem to have aimed at extermination so much as complete demoralisation and destruction of any such opposition. They rendered any gunner that got near them useless, cut every line of communication and wrecked most of the railways here and there. They were hamstringing mankind. They seemed in no hurry to extend the field of their operations, and did not come beyond the central part of California. It is thought that a considerable number of people in California stuck to their homes, though, by Monday morning, it is certain that many of them died by suffocation at the hands of the black smoke.

I watched as, south of the river, the towering invaders went, calmly and methodically, spreading their poison cloud over the land, choking anyone who got close. They layered it with their steam jets once it had served its purpose, at the same time taking possession of the conquered country.

I wondered what had become of my friends: had they succumbed to the heat ray or the black smoke? I closed my eyes and forced the thoughts from my mind; if I were to ensure Penny's survival, I needed to be strong. She needed a hero and I could be that hero... I'm her Batman.

We made it to the point of rendezvous near the river on the western side of Pasadena: it was an astonishing scene. There were hundreds of survivors, all desperately trying to free seaward, towards the Pacific Ocean and out of the United States of America. By early afternoon, the thinning remnant of a cloud of the invaders' black smoke appeared, which caused a scene of mass confusion. Penny grabbed hold of my arm, not knowing what it meant. I put my arm around her shoulder to comfort her, and we continued.

That day, the scattered multitudes of survivors started to realise the urgent need for provisions as they grew hungry; the rights of properties were being disregarded as people started looting for anything that they could get their hands on. Leonard decided to loot the nearby Glendale Wal-Mart for something to eat for the four of us. I followed along with Zack and Penny. Penny made her way to the clothing aisles and said she would find us all something fresh to wear. Zack make his way to the electrical department, although lord knows what he would find of use there given the situation. I rolled my eyes, and continued after Leonard.

"Hey buddy", Leonard started. "So, what's with you and Penny all of a sudden?" he asked in his usual tone. "I have no idea what you mean by that, Leonard", I replied, whilst gathering non-perishable food stuffs from the shelves. "Well, not too long ago, you couldn't bear to be touched, and now you are putting your arm around her", he pointed out. "Yes Leonard, I am well aware of this, but I think that, given the situation, it is warranted and, since she seems to be treating me as her comfort blanket, I have no choice other than to oblige. She is my friend, and she is scared", I told him defensively. I could not risk exposing my true feelings to Leonard: he had dated Penny on and off for years, and Howard once told me that it was unacceptable to hang out with your roommate's ex after we played World of Warcraft together. Leonard must have noticed the twitching: damn, I am terrible at hiding truths. "So you don't have any fuzzy feelings for her then?!" he out right asked. He knew I couldn't lie, and was watching my face closely as I twitched uncontrollably. "Sheldon, I don't care if you are in love with Penny; it's not like I'm seeing her any more, and it's clear that she finds comfort from you", he said. "Well thank you Leonard, but I highly doubt she would be interested in me", I sighed, and walked off, not wishing for Leonard to see the tear which had escaped and was falling down my cheek.

We gathered all that we could carry and left Wal-Mart. As we walked up the road, we heard someone shouting "Pennnnnnnnnnnnnny"; as I turned around, I noticed a small blonde lady running towards us with her arms outstretched. It was Bernadette. She had flung her arms around Penny. As I looked past her, I saw Howard, Raj and Amy, all alive and well. I could not describe how relieved I was to see everyone alive, well and reunited. Leonard came over towards me; he must have seen my smiling at Penny's happiness. "Think about what I said Sheldon: everyone deserves some happiness in their lives, even you, and I can tell she makes you as happy as you do her." He patted me on the back with a look of approval.


	17. Chapter 17: The USS Thunderchild

**Chapter Seventeen: The USS Thunderchild**

About a couple of miles out lay a naval vessel, lying very low in the water. It was unaffected by the EMP device, but resembled a water logged ship. This was the Frigate USS Thunderchild. It was the only warship in sight, but far away to the left was the smooth surface of the sea. At the sight of the sea, Penny became excited. "We could get out of the country; escape out to sea, where they can't get to us!" she shrieked. She had never even been out of the States before, but she sure as ever did not wish to die. She had been growing increasingly hysterical, fearful and depressed during the last few days. It was nice to see her smiling, through both the fact that she had been reunited with her friends and the prospect of escaping this fresh hell.

It was with the greatest difficulty that we got down towards the shore. I had managed to attract the attention of some men who were sitting in a leisure boat, and used some of the things we had looted as a bargaining tool to allow us on board. Being sufficiently far enough away from the radius of the invaders' EMP device, their vessel was still very much operable, but I knew that it wouldn't be for long if the tripods made it this far down river.

It was about fourteen hundred hours when we found ourselves safely onboard the leisure boat; there was plenty of food onboard, but we would have to ration this as we had no idea of how long we would need to remain out at sea. There were also a few other people already onboard. I had already picked out which was going to be my spot: it was close to the heater, but not too close so as to cause overheating; it was also in the path of a cross breeze and at a direct angle to the centre of the living space. Yes, this was definitely going to be my spot, I thought to myself.

Suddenly, we heard the sound of gunshots, and we noticed that the nearby Frigate had sprung into action. Some of the other passengers were of the opinion that this firing came from Pasadena, until it became apparent that it was getting louder. Our little leisure boat was already making its way westward towards the Pacific Ocean when a tripod appeared, small and faint in the distance, advancing along the muddy coast from the direction of Pasadena. At this sight, the captain on the bridge swore at the top of his voice with a tone of fear and anger in his voice. Everybody aboard stood on the deck and stared at the distant shape, higher than the trees and advancing with the leisurely parody of a human stride. Penny was again clinging onto me as if her life depended on it. "Sheldon...", she whispered, obvious distress and worry filling her voice. I held her as tight as I could, trying not to show her how scared I was. We stood there, terrified, watching this titan advance deliberately towards the shipping, wading farther and farther into the water as the coast fell away. Then far away, beyond the distance, came another, striding over the trees; and then yet another, and another, wading deeply through a shiny mudflat. They were each stalking seaward as if to interrupt our escape.

I sprang to my feet and saw to starboard, not a hundred yards away, a vast iron bulk, like the blade of a plough, tearing through the water, tossing it to both sides in huge waves of foam that leapt towards the leisure boat. The spray from this blinded me for a moment; when my eyes were clear again, I saw that the monster had passed. It was the USS Thunderchild, steaming headlong, coming to the rescue of the threatened shipping!

Keeping my footing on the heaving deck by clutching the bulwarks, I looked back at the invaders again. Three of them were now close together, and standing so far out to sea that their tripod supports were almost entirely submerged. It would seem that they were regarding this new antagonist with their own astonishment. The Thunderchild did not fire any gun: it simply drove at full speed towards them. It was probably their not firing that allowed them to get as close to the enemy as they did, for they would have been sure to trigger the EMP at the first sign of torpedo fire.

Suddenly the foremost tripod raised its claw and discharged a canister of the black gas at the frigate. It hit her and glanced off in an inky jet which rolled away into the sea, an unfolding torrent of black smoke from which the frigate drove clear. Howard had already started to lower one of the leisure boat's lifeboats. "We might need one of these if this doesn't end in our favour", he shouted, loading up our supplies into the boat. I thought for a second, and drew the conclusion that he was probably right.

We watched the tripod's gaunt figures separating and rising out of the water as they retreated shoreward. One of them raised the generator of the heat ray, he held it pointing downward and a bank of steam sprang from the water at its touch. It must have driven through the steel of the ships side like a white hot iron rod through paper. A flicker of flame went up through the rising steam, and the tripod reeled and staggered. In another moment, it was cut down, and a great body of water and steam shot up high into the air. The guns of the Thunderchild sounded through the cloud, going off one after another. One shot splashed the water close to our boat. The sight of a tripod collapse caused everyone to yell and cheer inarticulately. Surging out from beyond the cloud drove something black: the flames streaming from the middle, and its ventilators and funnels spouting fire, but she was still alive; the steering gear still intact and her engines working.

She headed straight for the second tripod and was within a hundred yards of it when the heat ray came to bear. With a violent thud and a blinding flash, her decks and funnels leaped upward. The tripod staggered with the violence of her explosion. Everyone was shouting, but Howard had already seen what was about to happen and commanded everyone into the tiny lifeboat. "If we don't go now, we're all dead", he instructed. Everyone in our group, including Zack, made their way into the lifeboat, and we made our escape though the clouds of smoke and steam which were presently hiding our leisure boat from the view of the tripods. We quickly paddled our way back to shore, not daring to look back.

At last, when we had reached the safety of the shore, we looked back towards the leisure boat; we heard the loudest of all explosions but could see nothing of it. Each of us collapsed on the bank, knowing that if it hadn't been for Howard's quick thinking, we would all be dead. We started celebrating our lucky escape, dancing on the riverbank. It was at that moment that Penny kissed me. I am unsure whether it was the joy of our escape, or whether Leonard had said anything to her about our earlier conversation, but she ran right up to me and placed her warm lips right on mine. My body stiffened up from the shock of what was taking place: she had kissed me before, but never like this. This time it was deep and meaningful, not like the time she had pinned me to the floor of my apartment for what she called a joke. "Sheldon", she whispered, but I was unable to speak: I just looked her in her beautiful green eyes. She simply thanked me for looking after her and then held me in a tight embrace which I never wanted to end...


	18. Chapter 18: Trapped

**Chapter Eighteen: Trapped**

The seven of us had come across an empty house near Anaheim, where we fled to escape the black smoke. We stopped there all night and the next day; the day of panic. We realised that we were now cut off from the rest of the world by the poisonous black smoke. We could do nothing but wait in aching inactivity during those weary days.

My mind was occupied by the anxiety of Penny and that kiss: I could not stop thinking about that kiss; the warmth of her lips against mine. Never in my life has anybody managed to break through my barriers and make me feel like she did that night. I paced the rooms and cried aloud when I thought about how we nearly died; how Penny nearly died. I could not bear the thought of losing her, but I knew that, as long as the black smoke remained nearby, it would not be safe to leave the house. My only consolation was to believe that the invaders were moving upwards, towards San Francisco, and away from us. Such anxieties kept my mind sensitive and painful. I grew very weary and irritable with Zack's constant ramblings; I grew tired of the sight of his selfish despair. After seeing him talking to Penny and scaring her with his nonsense, I attempted some ineffectual remonstrance; in the end I just made the decision to keep away from the neanderthal, staying in a room which evidentially was a nerd's paradise with action figures, Lego, Star Wars and comic books galore: yes, this was my room. In order to be alone with my ever changing emotions, I locked myself in.

We were hopelessly hemmed in by the black smoke for all of that day and the morning of the next. The black smoke drifted slowly riverward by the afternoon, creeping nearer and nearer towards us, driving us from the house which had been hiding us.

A tripod came across the fields around pre-evening time, layering the stuff with a jet of superheated steam that hissed against the walls, smashing all the windows it touched and scalded Penny's hand as she fled from the front room to come and get me from my retreat. When, at last, we crept across the sodden rooms and looked out again, the landscape northward was as though a black snowstorm had passed over it. Looking towards the river, I was astonished to see an unexplained redness mingling with the black of the scorched land.

For a time we did not see how this change affected our position, except that we were relieved of the black smoke. Howard suggested that, since it appeared that we were no longer hemmed in, we might be able to escape; he pointed out that a way of escape was open, and my dream of getting Penny away from these monsters and to safety was returned, but Zack was lethargic and being very unreasonable. "We're safe here", he kept repeating. I resolved to leave him, and I sure would have done. When it became clear to him that we meant to go without him, he suddenly roused himself to join us. And, all being quiet throughout the afternoon, we started about five o'clock, along the blackened road to Anaheim.


	19. Chapter 19: The White House

**Chapter Nineteen: The White House**

In Anaheim, and at intervals along the road, were dead bodies lying, covered thickly with black dust. That dreadful powder made me think of what I had read of the destruction of Pompeii. We got to the town centre without misadventure, my mind full of strange and unfamiliar emotions. Then suddenly, as we turned a corner, came a number of people running, and the now familiar sight of an invader fighting machine loomed into sight over the rooftops, not a hundred yards away from us. We stood aghast our danger and had the invader looked down, we would have been killed for sure. We were all so terrified that we dare not go on, but instead turned aside and hid in an outhouse at the back of someone's garden. There, the girls crouched down weeping silently, joined by Zack.

I went over to comfort Penny. Howard tended to Bernadette, and Raj did the same for Amy. But my idea of reaching safety would not rest, and in the twilight we ventured out again. That second start was the most foolhardy thing we ever did. Not too far away from us, but far enough for us not to risk being seen by the invaders, four or five of their tripod machines stood, and for a moment it was evident that they were perusing a small crowd of people who were attempting to run from them. They were running, radiating in all directions. The invader used no heat ray to destroy them: it picked them up one by one and tossed them into a great metallic carrier which projected behind it. It was the first time that I had even thought that the invaders might have any other purpose, other than the destruction of mankind. We stood for a moment, petrified, Penny clutching on to my arm for reassurance as had become common place these days. We then turned around and fled through the gate behind us and into a walled garden; we fell into, rather than found, a fortunate ditch and lay there, scarcely daring to whisper to each other until the stars were out.

It seemed like late evening when we finally gathered the courage to start again, no longer venturing into the road but instead sneaking along hedgerows and watching keenly through the darkness. The invaders seemed to be all about us. In one place we blundered upon a scorched and blackened area, now cooling and covered in ash. There were a number of scattered dead bodies, burnt horribly. I shielded Penny's eyes as we walked past them, not wishing for her to be exposed to this gruesome sight.

Our companion, Zack, suddenly started complaining of faintness and thirst, so we decided to try one of the nearby houses. We entered the first house, after a little spot of difficulty with the windows. It was a small semi detached villa, but we found nothing edible here, except for some mouldy cheese. There was, however, water to drink, and I took a crowbar, which promised to be helpful in our next house breaking!

We then crossed to a place with a white house which stood within a walled garden, and in the pantry we found a large store of food. This became our luckiest find yet: as it happens, we were destined to remain here for the next fortnight. Bottled beer stood on a shelf next to several bottles of wine. There were multiple boxes of cereal to keep the digestive system functioning sufficiently. The pantry opened up to a kind of wash-up kitchen which resembled the laundry room in our old apartment block. In there, we found some fire wood; there was also a cupboard, in which we found tinned soups and two large tins of biscuits.

We sat in the adjacent kitchen in the dark, for we dare not strike any light; we ate bread and ham and the others drank some beer from the same bottle. I had my own glass as I had no intentions of consuming the spittle the others left in their bottle. Zack, who was still restless, was now oddly enough calling for us to push on, and Amy was urging him to keep up his strength by eating, giving him some kind of speech regarding how lack of food can be detrimental to brain function.

"It can't be midnight yet", Bernadette shrieked, as a blinding glare of vivid green light lit the room. Everything in the kitchen leaped out, clearly visible in the green and black, then quickly vanished again. This was followed by as severe a concussion as I have ever heard before or since. So close after this as to seem instantaneous, came a thud behind me, a smash of glass, a crash and rattling of falling pottery all around us, and then the plaster from the ceiling came crashing down on us, smashing into a multitude of fragments upon our heads. I was knocked headlong across the floor, frantically looking everywhere for Penny. I banged my head against the oven handle and was insensible for a long time, Penny told me. When I came to, we were in darkness again and Penny, with a tear stained face, told how she found me on the floor, underneath the rubble, with blood from a cut forehead. She had been sobbing uncontrollably, Bernadette said, as she thought that I had perished in the destruction of the house. For some time, I was unable to recollect what had happened, then things came back to me slowly, and a bruise on my temple began to show itself. Penny just held me tight in her arms and whispered, "I thought I'd lost you Moonpie"; tears still falling from her reddened eyes.

"Are you better?" Leonard asked in a whisper. I tried to sit up. "Don't move", he said, "the floor is covered with smashed glass, you can't possibly move without making a sound." He explained how the invaders were more than likely outside. We all sat in silence, such that we could scarcely hear each other breathing. Everything seemed deadly still, but then some plaster or broken brickwork slid down the wall and hit the floor with a rumbling sound. Outside, very near us, I heard a metallic rattle. "What the hell is that?" asked Penny, still wiping tears from her eyes. "An invader?" Raj suggested. I listened again. "Well, it doesn't sound like the heat ray", Howard said, and, for a time, I was inclined to think that, maybe, one of the great fighting machines had stumbled against the house.

Our situation was so strange and incomprehensible that, for at least three hours, until the dawn came, we scarcely moved. And then the light filtered in, not through the window which remained black, but through a triangular shaped aperture between a beam and a heap of broken bricks in the wall behind us. The interior of the kitchen, we now saw clearly for the first time.

Outside, the soil was banked up high against the house. The floor was littered with smashed up hardware, the end of the kitchen towards the house was broken into, and, since the daylight shone in there, it was evident that the greater part of the house had collapsed.

As the dawn drew clearer, I saw, through the gap in the wall, the body of an invader, standing over the still glowing cylinder. At the sight of that, I crawled, as circumspectly as possible, out of the twilight of the kitchen and into the darkness of the pantry. Abruptly, the right interpretation dawned upon my mind: "the fifth cylinder", I whispered. "The fifth cylinder has struck this house and buried us under the ruins." The others just gasped, with a look of absolute horror on each of their faces. "God have mercy on us all", Zack said, whimpering to himself. "Oh please, even if there was an almighty deity looking over us and answering our prayers, do you honestly think he would have allowed this to happen in the first place?" I whispered sternly to him.

Save for that sound, we lay quite still in the pantry; I, for my part, dared not even breathe, and I sat with my eyes fixed on the faint light of the kitchen door. If anything was to come through that door, I was ready to protect Penny at all costs. I could just see her face: a dim oval shape with her flowing blonde hair. Outside, there began a metallic hammering, then a violent hooting, and then again, after a quiet interval, a hissing like the hissing of an engine. These noises, for the most part problematic, continued intermittently, and seemed, if anything, to increase in number as time wore on. Presently, a measured thudding, and a vibration that made everything about us quiver and the tins in the pantry ring and shift, began and continued. The light was eclipsed, and the ghostly kitchen doorway became absolutely dark. For many hours I found myself awake and very hungry; I am inclined to believe that we must have spent the better half of the day before that awake. My hunger was at breaking point, and so insistent that it moved me into action. I told the others that I was going to search for food, and I felt my way towards the shelves in the pantry. Nobody answered me, but, no sooner had I started eating, Penny had made her way over towards me and helped herself...


	20. Chapter 20: From The Ruined House

_"take a look around you, at the world we've come to know... does it seem to be much more than a crazy circus show... but maybe from the madness, something beautiful will grow, in a brave new world"_

**Chapter Twenty: From The Ruined House**

After eating, I decided that enough was enough. It was perhaps about time that Penny realised how I felt about her; she had been hysterical when she thought that I had perished under the rubble of the white house. It had become apparent to me, over the events since the invasion began, that she may have feelings for me way beyond the boundaries of friendship. I had to know for certain. Throwing all of my inhibitions to one side, I walked over to where she was standing and put one hand against the wall to the left side of her head and looked deep into her eyes. I inched closer to her. I felt shivers travel through my entire body. What was I doing? I couldn't be doing what I thought I was doing, could I? I moved in closer to her, using my free hand to caress her cheek; her touch was light and soft as I leaned even closer to her. I could feel myself blush and my pulse quicken as Penny's eyes, along with my own, started to close. I paused, thinking once more, was this the right thing to do? Finally, I swallowed my nerves and moved closer. Our lips met. Penny moved her hand forward and placed it carefully on mine, probably watching for any indication that I would bolt. I was shaking quite considerably, but I soon relaxed. I believe she could see the effort it took, and she tried smiling encouragingly at me. I was wondering whether she could feel the way my heart was pounding. It felt almost like I was completely in a daze. For those brief moments, I seemed to lose the thought of reality. It felt like a great weight had finally been lifted from my shoulders, and I knew that I never wanted this moment to end. I looked silently into her beautiful green eyes, and, from that moment on, I knew that I would never feel alone again. I had to survive this to ensure Penny's survival.

I could hear a number of noises, almost like those that you would hear in an engine shed, and the place rocked with a beating thud. For a moment or so, I remained staring into Penny's eyes; however, the noises continued, so we advanced back to the kitchen, crouching and stepping with extreme care amid the shattered glass which littered the floor. I gripped Penny's arm, fearing that she may cry out, and for a long time we crouched motionless. The detachment of the plaster had left a vertical split open in the debris, and, by raising myself cautiously across the beam, I was able to see out of this gap into what had been a quiet suburban roadway. Vast would be an understatement to describe the change that I then witnessed.

The fifth cylinder must have fallen right on top of the house that we had first visited. The building had vanished: completely smashed. The cylinder lay far beneath the foundations, deep in a hole already larger than the one we had seen back in Pasadena. Our house had collapsed backwards; the front portion, even on the ground floor, had been destroyed completely; by a chance, the kitchen and the pantry had escaped and stood, now buried under the soil and ruins, closed by tones of earth on every side towards the cylinder. We now hung on the very edge of the circular pit that the invaders were engaged in making. The heavy beating sound was evidentially just behind us, and, now and again, a bright green vapour drove up like a veil across our peephole.

The cylinder had already opened in the centre of the pit, and, on the furthest edge of the pit, one of the great fighting machines, deserted by its occupant, stood stiff and tall against the evening sky. The mechanism that I saw next certainly held my attention: it was a complicated looking machine, which has since been referred to as a "handling machine", and the study of which has already given such an enormous boost into terrestrial invention. It resembled a sort of metallic spider with five jointed, agile legs and with an extraordinary number of jointed levers and bars, reaching and clutching tentacles on its body. Most of its arms were retracted, but with three long tentacles it was fishing out a number of rods, plates and bars which lined the covering and apparently strengthened the walls of the cylinder. These, as it extracted them, were lifted out and deposited on the ground behind it.

Its motion was so swift, complex and perfect that, at first, I did not see it as a machine: in spite of its metallic shimmer, it moved just like a living creature would do. The fighting machines were co-ordinated and animated to an extraordinary level, but nothing compared to this strange machine. People who have seen these mighty metal machines have only artists interpretations or the imperfect descriptions from eye-witness accounts: nobody could imagine their perfect living quality.

At first, I would say that the handling machine did not impress me so much as a machine, but, as a crablike creature with a glittering integument, the controlling creature whose own delicate tentacles actuated its movements, seeming to be simply the equivalent of the crab machine's cerebral portion; then I noticed the resemblance of its brown coloured, shiny, leathery integument to that of the creatures' own bodies, and the true nature of this dexterous workman dawned on me. With that realisation, my interest shifted to those other creatures: the real invaders. Already, I had had a transient impression of these, and the first feelings of nausea no longer obscured my observations of them. Moreover, I was concealed, motionless and in no urgency of any action.

They were, I could now see, the most unearthly creatures that it is possible to imagine. They had huge round bodies, or, rather, heads for a better word, about four feet in diameter; each body had a face with no nostrils, but a pair of very large, dark coloured, disk like eyes. Underneath this was a kind of fleshy looking beak. In the back of this head was what we now know to be its ear, though it must have been nearly impossible for it to hear anything in our dense air. In a group around the mouth were sixteen almost whip-like tentacles, arranged into two bunches of eight. These bunches have since been named, rather aptly, by a very distinguished anatomist and neurosurgeon as the hands. Even as I saw these invaders for the first time, they seemed to be endeavouring to raise themselves on these hands, but of course with the increased weight caused by the differences in gravity, this was impossible.

They did not eat, much less digest. Instead, they took the fresh, living blood of other creatures and injected it into their own veins. I saw this being done for myself; squeamish as I am around the sight of blood, I can not bring myself to describe what I could not endure to continue watching. Let it suffice to say, blood obtained from a still living animal, in most cases a human being, was run directly into the recipient. The bare idea of this is, no doubt, horrifically repulsive to us, but, at the same time, I think that we should try to remember how repulsive our own carnivorous eating habits would seem to an intelligent rabbit.


	21. Chapter 21: The Days Of Our Imprisonment

_"All my agony fades away, when you hold me in your embrace... don't tear me down for all I need, make my heart a better place, give me something that I believe... don't tear me down, you've opened the door now, don't let it close"_

**Chapter Twenty-One: The Days Of Imprisonment**

The arrival of a second fighting machine drove us from our peephole and back into the pantry: we feared that, from its elevation, the invader might see down and beyond the barrier protecting us from view. We occasionally ventured back, but even the slightest suggestion that one of them might be lurking nearby drove us straight back into the pantry in a heart-throbbing retreat. As terrible as the danger was, the attraction of peeping was irresistible for all of us. I can recall with such wonder that, in spite of the infinite danger that threatened to place us somewhere between starvation and an even more terrible death, we would struggle bitterly for that horrible privilege of sight. I witnessed Zack and Leonard race across the kitchen, torn between the eagerness and the dread of making a noise, striking and kicking each other to within a few inches of exposure. The fact was that we had absolutely incompatible dispositions and habits from those Zack possessed, and our danger and isolation only accentuated our incompatibility. I had really come to hate Zack's trick of helpless exclamation and his stupid mind. His endless muttering vitiated every effort that I made to think out a line of action, and he drove me at times, almost to the verge of craziness: something which I wasn't currently as my mother had me tested. He was as lacking in self restraint as a silly woman from a 1930s horror movie. He would weep for hours on end, and I verily believe that this spoiled child of life thought that, in some ways, his tears were efficacious. He ate more than any of us did, and it was in vain that I pointed out that our only chance of survival was to stop in the house until the invaders had done with their pit, and that the time might come when we would need food; yet he continued to eat and drink big meals at short intervals, and he slept very little.

As the days wore on, his complete and utter disregard and carelessness of any consideration to the rest of us so intensified our distress and danger that Howard had resorted to threats, and then at last to blows. That brought him to reason for a time, but he was one of those weak creatures: void of pride.

And whilst we fought in the dark in a dim contrast of whispers, snatched food and drink, gripping hands and blows, in the pitiless sunlight of that terrible summer, was the strange wonder, the unfamiliar routing of the invaders in the pit. After a long time I ventured back to the peephole, to find that the newcomers had been reinforced by the occupants of no fewer than three of the fighting machines. These had brought with them certain fresh appliances that stood in an orderly manner around the cylinder area. The second handling machine was now completed, and was busied in servicing something that one of the bigger machines had brought. This was a body resembling a milk can in its general form; above it oscillated a pear-shaped receptacle, from which a stream of white powder flowed through a circular basin below.

The oscillatory motion was imparted to this by one tentacle of the handling machine. With two spatulate hands, the handling machine was digging out and flinging masses of earth into the pear shaped receptacle above, whilst with another arm it periodically opened a door and removed rusty and blackened clinker from the middle part of the machine. Another steely tentacle directed the powder from the basin and along a ribbed channel towards some sort of receiver which was hidden from my view by a mound of dirt. From this unseen receiver, a little thread of green smoke rose vertically into the air. As I looked, the handling machine extended a tentacle in a telescopic fashion until it had lifted a bar of white aluminium looking metal into sight, untarnished as yet and shining dazzlingly, and deposited it onto a growing stack of bars which stood at the side of the pit. Between the sunset and starlight, this strange machine must have made more than a hundred such bars out of the crude earth, and the mound of dust rose steadily until it topped the side of the pit.

Zack was sitting at the slit when the first men were brought to the pit. I was sitting below, huddled up with Penny: neither of us daring to speak, but listening with all our ears. He made a sudden movement backward and Raj, fearful that we had been observed, crouched in a spasm of terror. Zack came sliding down the rubbish and crept behind Leonard, and, for a moment, I shared his panic. After a while, my curiosity got the better of me and gave me courage. I rose up and clambered up to the slit. At first, I could see no reason for his frantic behaviour. The whole picture was a scene of flickering green gleams and shifty black shadows. I thought that I heard the drifting suspicion of human voices; I entertained this thought at first, only to dismiss it soon after.

I crouched down, watching this fighting machine closely, realising for certain that each one of these did contain an invader, sitting in the hood. I suddenly heard a yell, and a long tentacle reached over the shoulder of the machine to the cage on its back. Then something, struggling violently, was lifted high against the sky and, as the object came down again, I saw by the green brightness that it was a young girl, no older than her early twenties; with flowing blonde locks, she looked just like Penny. I could see her staring eyes and gleams of light on her necklace. She vanished behind the mound, and for a moment there was silence. And then the shrieking began and sustained a cheerful hooting from the invaders. I slid down the rubbish and struggled to my feet, clasping my hands over my ears, and bolted to the pantry. Penny, who had been crouching silently with her hands over her head, looked up as I passed; she cried out loud and came running after me. I dare not tell her of what I had just witnessed: the sheer gruesomeness of it made me shudder, even just thinking about it. That girl had resembled Penny so much. I allowed a tear to fall down my cheek, and she just held me tightly until I felt a sudden calm.

Zack, I found, was quite incapable of discussion. He, too, had witnessed this new and culminating atrocity, and it appeared to have robbed him of all vestiges of reason or forethought. He had already sunk to the level of an animal. Even once I had faced the facts of how terrible our position was, I had found no reason for total despair.


	22. Chapter 22: A Man Insane

_"I can't believe what's happening; I don't know what to say and what I wouldn't give to change our fate"_

**Chapter Twenty-Two: A Man Insane**

I was sat in the kitchen, silently, with the others, when I noticed that Zack was not with us. I was struck by a sudden thought and went back quickly to check the pantry. In the darkness, I heard him drinking. II snatched in the darkness, and my fingers caught a bottle of rum.

For a few minutes there was a tussle; the bottle struck the floor and broke. We stood panting, staring each other out; if only I had perfected it, I swear that I would have made his head explode there and then. In the end, I planted myself between him and the food and told him of my determination to begin a discipline. I divided the food in the pantry into rations, enough to last us another ten days. I would not let him eat any more that day. In the afternoon, he made yet another feeble effort to get at the food. I had been dozing, but, in an instant, I was awake. All day and all night, we sat face to face. He was weeping and complaining of his immediate hunger. Oh dear God, whose existence I strongly doubt: I could have murdered him right there and then; the noises that he was making were sure to draw unwanted attention from our nearby extraterrestrial neighbours.

And so, his widened incompatibility with the rest of us ended up in open conflict. There were times when Leonard beat and kicked him madly, times when I cajoled and persuaded him and Penny once even tried to bribe him with a bottle of rum. But neither force nor kindness availed: this man was indeed beyond reason. He would desist neither from his attacks on the food nor from his noisy babbling to himself. Slowly I began to realise the complete overthrow of his intelligence, if he even had any to begin with; our companion in this close and sticky darkness was a man insane.

He suddenly reverted to the matter of the food I withheld him from; he was praying, begging, weeping and in the end threatening. He began to raise his voice; I begged him not to, for I feared that he would draw attention to us, and the invaders would surely find us. He threatened that he would, and bring the invaders upon us. For a time, that thought scared me, but I defied him, although I felt no assurance that he might not do this thing. He talked, with his voice raising slowly, through the greater part of the time we spent trapped in that house - threat, entreaties and always mingled with a torrent of half sane repentance for the vacant sham that is God's service. He slept a while and then began again with a renewed strength, so loudly that even Bernadette was losing patience with him.

"Will you shut up?" I implored; he immediately rose to his knees, for he had been sitting on the floor. "I have been sitting still too long", he said, in a tone which must have reached the pit. "Why do we have to listen to YOU anyway? What makes anyone think that Doctor Whack-a-doodle knows what's best for everyone? You would have us wait here and starve to death or, worse, become food for THEM", he shouted, pointing towards the pit. "Shut up", I repeated, rising to my feet in absolute terror that the invaders would hear us. "NO", shouted Zack, at the top of his voice, standing likewise and extending his arms. "I have no intentions of my blood becoming food for those demons. Not my blood, not my blood", he kept repeating.

I put out my hand and felt the meat chopper hanging from the wall. Of all the thoughts running through my head, the one which dominated my thoughts the most was that of the blonde haired girl the invaders had feasted on. I did not want that fate to be Penny's. I would do anything I could to protect her, even if it meant shutting this blubbering idiot up once and for all. He would be the death of us all if one of us did not act now, for the noise he was making was sure to draw the attention of the invaders. I was fierce with both fear and anger; I noticed a flash before me, and, in a shot, the door to the pantry slammed behind me. With one last touch of humanity, Bernadette turned towards Zack and struck him with a shovel. He went headlong forward and lay stretched out on the ground. I stumbled over him; Bernadette stood panting, he lay still.

Suddenly, I heard a noise. I looked up and saw the lower surface of a handling machine coming slowly across the hole. One of its gripping limbs curled amid the debris of the white house; around the slit, another limb appeared, feeling its way over the falling beams. I stood petrified, starring at Bernadette. She put her finger to her lips and gestured not to make a sound. I saw, through a broken glass bowl near the edge of Zack's body, the dark eyes of an invader, peering, and then a long metallic snake of a tentacle came feeling slowly through the hole.

My thoughts turned back to Penny and the others in the kitchen; I turned by an effort, grabbing Bernadette by the arm and stumbling over the body, stopping by the pantry door. The tentacle was now two metres or so in the room, twisting and turning with queer sudden movements, this way and that. For a while, we stood, petrified by that slow advance. Then, with a faint, hoarse cry, I forced myself across the pantry, dragging Bernadette along with me, both of us trembling violently; we could scarcely stand upright. I opened the door to the pantry, staring at the faintly lit doorway to the kitchen and listening. Had the invader seen us? What was it doing now? Bernadette signalled to the others not to move a muscle.

Something was moving to and fro, very quietly; every now and then it tapped against the wall, or started on its movements with a faint metallic ringing. Then a heavy body – Bernadette and I knew only too well what – was dragged across the floor of the pantry towards the opening. Irresistibly attracted, I crept towards the door and peeped back into the pantry. In the bright sunlight I saw the invader, in its mighty handling machine, scrutinising Zack's head. I thought, at once, that it would realise our presence once it had noticed the mark of the blow Bernadette had given him.

I crept back to the kitchen, shut the door and began to cover Penny as best I could, silently signalling that the others do the same. Every now and then, we would pause to hear if the invader had thrust its tentacles through the opening again.

Then the faint metallic jingle returned. I hoped that its length might be insufficient to reach us. It passed, scraping faintly across the pantry door. An age of almost intolerable suspense intervened; then I heard it fumbling with the latch! It had found the door: the invaders understood doors!

It worked at the catch for a moment, and then the door opened. In the darkness, I could just see the thing, like an elephant's trunk more than anything else, waving towards us, touching and examining the walls as it moved. It was like a black worm swaying its blind head. Once, it even touched the heel of my boot: I was on the verge of screaming, but quickly remembered that I was holding onto Penny. If it discovered me, it would discover her too, and I could not resign her to that horrible fate. I forced myself to remain quiet; almost emptying my bladder in the process, I bit my hand. With an abrupt click, it gripped something - I actually thought that it had me! For a minute, I was not sure: it seemed to go out of the kitchen again. Apparently it had grabbed a lump of coal to examine.

After what seemed like forever, I heard the slow, deliberate sound creeping towards me again. Slowly, it drew near, scratching against the walls and tapping the furniture. Whilst I was still doubtful, it rapped smartly against the pantry door and closed it. I heard the biscuit tins rattle and a bottle smashed, and then came a heavy bump against the pantry door; then the silence that passed into an infinity of suspense.

"Has it gone", Raj whispered, barely making a sound. At last, I decided that it had. It came into the kitchen no more, but we all remained in the close darkness for the remainder of the day, buried among the coals and the firewood, not even daring to crawl out for the drink which I have no doubt that they craved as much as I did. It was the eleventh day of being trapped in this house before any of us dare venture anywhere from our security...


	23. Chapter 23: The Stillness

_"There I was again tonight, forcing laughter, faking smiles; same old tired, lonely place... Walls of insincerity, shifting eyes and vacancy vanished when I saw your face... All I can say is: it was enchanting to meet you"_

**Chapter Twenty-Three: The Stillness**

My fist thought, after I went into the pantry, was to fasten the door, but the pantry was empty; every scrap of food had gone. Apparently, the invaders had taken it all the previous day. At that discovery, I despaired for the first time. Were the only two choices we had to starve to death or to risk being spotted by the invaders?

By the end of the twelfth day, and our second without food or water, my mouth and throat were parched; I am pretty certain that the others would have been feeling the same. My strength ebbed sensibly. I sat about in the darkness of the pantry, in a state of despondent wretchedness. "What were we going to do?" I asked myself. We could no longer stay here, as we would surely die, but it was not much safer out there either. I struggled to think of a plan. I had not achieved sufficient REM sleep for weeks, and my mind was running on eating. I thought that I had become deaf, for the noises in the pit seemed to have ceased absolutely. However I did not feel strong enough to crawl noiselessly to the peephole, or I would have gone there.

By the morning of the thirteenth day, my throat was so painful that taking the chance of being spotted by the invaders was the only logical way I could decide upon to keep us all alive. We needed water. I attacked a creaking rainwater pump which stood by the sink, and got a couple of glasses of blackened and tainted rain water. I shuddered at the thought of drinking something so contaminated, but it was either this or a death at the hands of dehydration. I took a few mouthfuls and was greatly refreshed by this, and, emboldened by the fact that no enquiring tentacles followed the noise of the pumping, I pumped a few more glasses full and passed them around the others.

During those days, in a rambling, inconclusive way, I thought much about Zack Ogilvy and the manner of his death. Had Bernadette not hit him with that shovel, all seven of us would surely have been discovered that day. It was her quick thinking which had saved us all. For all that I had thought about shutting him up, I am not sure that I would have been capable of ending the life of another human being – although he had driven me into such a state of mind that my mother may well have needed to get me tested me again!

Whenever I dozed on the thirteenth day, I dreamt of horrible phantasms, of the death of Zack, or of scrumptious entrees; but, whether asleep or awake, I felt a keen pain that urged me to think of some way to get us all out of this fresh hell. The light that came into the pantry was no longer grey, but red, and to my disordered imagination it seemed to be the colour of blood.

On the fourteenth day, I went into the pantry, and I was surprised to find that the fronds of the red weed had grown right across the hole in the wall, turning most of the light in the place into a scarlet-coloured obscurity.

It was early on the fifteenth day that we heard a curious, familiar sequence of sounds in the pantry, and, listening, Bernadette identified it as the sniffing and scratching of a dog. Going into the pantry, I saw a dog's nose peering from a break among the red weed. At the scent of me, he barked shortly.

I thought that, if I could entice him to come into the place quietly, I should be able, perhaps, to kill and eat him; in any case, I thought, it would be advisable to kill him, lest his actions attracted the attention of the invaders. I crept forward, saying "good dog!" very softly, but he suddenly withdrew his head and disappeared.

I listened - I was not deaf - but certainly the pit was still. I heard a sound like the flutter of a bird's wings, and a toad croaking, but that was all. For a long while, I lay close to the peephole, but not daring to move aside the red plants which obscured it. Once or twice, I heard a faint 'pitter patter', like the feet of the dog moving on the ground below me, and then there were more birdlike sounds, but that was all. "Whatcha doing sweetie": I heard Penny's voice behind me. "Well Penny, I have noticed that there is a distinct lack of noise coming from outside, and I am trying to investigate whether it is safe for us to leave this wretched place", I replied. "If we stay here, we will starve to death, which is something I just can't allow", I continued. She placed her hand on my shoulder, and, encouraged by her presence, I looked out.

Except for in the corner, where a multitude of crows were hopping, there was not a living thing in that pit. I stared about me, scarcely believing my eyes: all the machinery had gone. Except for the big mound of greyish-blue powder in one corner, and certain bars of the aluminium looking metal in another, the place was merely an empty circular pit.

Slowly, I thrust myself out through the red weed and stood upon the mound of rubble. I could see in any direction except behind me: to the north neither invader nor sign of invader were to be seen. The pit dropped sheerly from my feet, but a little way along the rubbish there was a slope to the summit of the ruins. Our chance of escape had finally come and I began to tremble.

I hesitated for some time, and then, in a gust of desperate resolution, and with a heart throbbing violence, I scrabbled to the top, dragging Penny along with me. I looked about again: there was a lone handling machine, dormant at the far side of the pit, but no other invader was visible. Abandoned, I wondered to myself? Howard must have thought the same as me. "I wonder if those machines are connected to each other somehow", he said. "Like a wireless computer network", I replied. We thought for a while. "If we could gain entry to one of their machines, we could do a lot of damage", he said, with a hint of deviousness in his voice. He tapped on the bag that he had brought his belongings in.


	24. Chapter 24: Mankind's Last Salvation

_"when the world ends, collect your things, you're coming with me"_

**Chapter Twenty-Four: Mankind's Last Salvation**

For some time, I stood tottering on the ruins of the white house, regardless of my safety. For that moment, I touched an emotion beyond my common range. I also felt the first inkling of a thing which presently grew quite clear in my mind: a sense of dethronement, a sudden feeling that I was no longer a master but an animal amongst the animals, under the invader's heel. But, as soon as this strangeness had been realised, it passed, and my dominant motive returned. Howard had an idea, and hopefully it was a good one.

Howard had convinced himself, during the weeks of our imprisonment in the white house, that the invaders' machines must be somehow connected to each other, in much the same way that a wireless network would be. In the direction of the pit, I saw, beyond a red-covered wall, an unburied ladder. This gave me a hint, and we went knee-deep, and sometimes neck-deep, in the red weed towards the machine. The density of the weed gave me a reassuring sense of being hidden. It also gave us the chance to scout the area for any signs of the invaders. It was like walking through an area of giant blood-drops. Bernadette suggested that the girls go and hunt for more food, and they made their way out of this unearthly region of the pit.

Some way farther, in a grassy place, was a group of mushrooms which, after examining carefully, we decided were not poisonous; driven by our immense hunger, we devoured them. These fragments of nourishment served only to whet our hunger. After what seemed like a life-time walking amongst the red weed, we were close to the machine. We scouted the area carefully for any signs that the invaders were still nearby, but we saw nothing. Raj held the ladder against one of the machine's gigantic spider-like legs, and Howard cautiously climbed the steps. I remained nearby with Leonard, keeping a close look-out for any returning invaders.

A nervous few moments passed by, but my fear that the invaders would return, or that this was some sort of trap, was overwhelming. It felt more like a life time. I could hear my heart beating hard and fast. We had come this far and survived so much, but I was unable to shake this fear from my mind.

Suddenly Howard's bag dropped from the opening to the giant metal machine: I knew straight away that something was wrong. Raj looked right at me and mouthed the word "run" as he started running towards us. In a flash, Leonard and I was also running, not sure if my legs could keep up. I felt a sudden rush of absolute fear sweep over me, and I knew that I needed to run, I needed to survive, for Penny. We ran as fast as we could towards the girls, neither of us daring to look back. "Howie", shrieked Bernadette: "Where's Howie", she cried. Neither of us could catch our breath to answer her, and I wasn't even sure whether Raj even knew the answer.


	25. Chapter 25: Restless Thoughts

_"Home, it's where the heart is, do just let me breathe again, make me young again... and we'll go where we are free again, this is not the end, we'll be young again" Hurts "Exile" (this song has been a bit of an inspiration for this story!) _

**Chapter Twenty-Five: Restless Thoughts**

For a time, I believed that mankind had been swept out of existence, and that we stood there alone: the last homosapiens alive. At the top of Hollywood Boulevard, we came upon a skeleton with the arms dislocated and removed, lying several yards away from the rest of the body. As we proceeded, I became more and more convinced that the extermination of mankind was, save for stragglers such as ourselves, already accomplished in this part of the world. The invaders, I thought, had gone on and left the country desolated, seeking food elsewhere. Perhaps now they were destroying London or Paris, or it might be that they had gone northwards into Canada.

We spent that night in an old saloon which stands on the top of Hollywood Boulevard, sleeping in a made bed for the first time since the evacuation of Pasadena. I will not tell you of the needless trouble that we had trying to break into that inn, only for Penny to find the front door was on the latch. We ransacked the whole place for any traces of food that we could scavenge. Along with the scraps that the girls had managed to find, we had the most random assortment of ingredients. In the bar afterwards, Leonard also found some biscuits and sandwiches: the latter I could not eat as they were too rotten, but the former not only stayed my hunger but also filled my pockets. In the meantime, Raj had been busy gathering the random foodstuffs which we had collectively harvested and was pondering which he would be able to cook. The inn had a gas oven which was seemingly unaffected by the EMP, so he was busying himself in the kitchen whilst Amy was comforting Bernadette and attempting to calm her down with a warm beverage.

The food that Raj had managed to throw together for the six of us was surprisingly delicious. It was, in fact, the first hot meal that any of us had eaten in weeks, and it was certainly welcomed by my digestive system which was not accustomed to surviving off scraps and wild mushrooms. I had always mocked Raj for his culinary skills, but this meal was quite an achievement given the restraints of what was available to us at the time.

We lit no lamps, fearing that an invader might be beating that part of California looking for food in the night. Before I went to bed, I had an interval of restlessness and prowled from window to window, peering out for some sign of Howard. Penny came to comfort me, but I found that I slept very little. As I lay in my bed, I found myself thinking consecutively, a thing that I had not done since my argument with Zack. During all the intervening time, my mental condition had been a hurrying succession of vague emotional states. But in the night, my brain, reinforced, I suppose, by the food I had eaten, grew clear again and I thought.

Three things struggled for possession of my mind: the killing of Zack, the whereabouts of the invaders and the possible fate of Howard. I was haunted by the look of terror on Raj's face when Howard had dropped his bag and shouted at us to run. What had become of our acquaintance? Was he alive? Was he deceased? Even Raj seemed sketchy on the details. I desperately wanted to reassure Bernadette that her husband was alive and well, but, in all honesty, none of us knew. Penny and Amy were doing their best to pacify her, but nothing seemed to take her mind away from the thoughts of Howard. She began muttering, concocting a plan of how she would "get back at those alien bastards" for what they had done to her "Howie".

The former gave me no sensation of horror or remorse to recall: after all, it was Bernadette who had ended his life, and I saw it simply as a thing done, a memory infinitely disagreeable but quite without the quality of remorse. I saw myself then as I see myself now, driven step by step towards driving that kitchen knife into his heart. That is precisely what I had intended to do and what I would have inevitably done, had Bernadette not stepped in with the shovel. I felt no condemnation, yet the memory, static and unprogressive, haunted me. In the silence of the night, Penny must have detected my restlessness, as she came rushing over towards me: she lay down alongside me and placed her comforting arms around my middle. Still, I retraced every step of the last conversation that I had with Zack, from the moment when I had found him crouching beside me, pointing to the fire and the smoke that steamed up from the ruins. He had been incapable of co-operation with the rest of us. Had I foreseen this, I should have left him in Pasadena. But I did not foresee, and crime is crime; there were no witnesses so the reader of this tale must judge our actions as they will...

And when, by an effort, I had set aside that image of Zack's body, I faced the problem of the invaders and the fate of Howard Wolowitz. For the former, I had no data: I could imagine a hundred things, and so, unhappily, I could for the latter, and suddenly, despite Penny's best intentions, that night became terrible. I found myself sitting up in bed, staring at the dark. If my mother were here, she would be suggesting I pray, but I refuse to talk to a deity whose existence I strongly doubt: if they did exist, I doubt they would have allowed this calamity to happen in the first place.

If nothing else, this war has taught us pity - pity for those witless souls that suffer our dominance...


	26. Chapter 26: The Man on The Boulevard

**Chapter Twenty-Six: The Man on Hollywood Boulevard**

The morning was bright and fine, and the eastern sky glowed pink and was fretted with little golden clouds. In the road that runs from the top of Hollywood Boulevard to Barnsdall Park were a number of poor vestiges of the panic torrent that must have poured through on the Sunday night after the fighting began. There was a little two-wheeled burger cart inscribed with the name of Napa Valley Burger Co: it had a smashed wheel and an abandoned tin trunk; there was a baseball cap trampled into the now hardened mud, and, near Hollywood Heights, there was a lot of blood stained glass. My movements were languid, my plans were the vaguest. Penny was walking alongside me with her arm around my waist: I believe that she still half expected me to issue her with strikes for invading my personal space. I had, however, become quite accustomed to her endearing behaviour, and I welcomed her embrace. Bernadette's heart ached for Howard, but none of us had any clear idea as to his fate, let alone how any finding would be done. We all became so sharply aware of it: the feeling of intense loneliness; we had not seen another living soul since we left the white house. Amy was doing her hardest to console Bernadette; her despair had deepened over the hours since Howard's disappearance, and she seemed to be plotting out loud how she could seek revenge on the invaders!

That dark expanse was lit in patches by the green grass of the park; there was no red weed to be seen, and as we prowled, hesitatingly, on the verge of the gates, the sun rose, flooding it all with light and vitality. I came upon a busy swarm of frogs in a swampy place among the trees. I stopped to look at them, drawing a lesson from their stout resolve to live. And presently, turning suddenly with an odd feeling that we were been watched, Amy spotted something crouching amid a clump of bushes. She stood regarding this for a moment, before making a step towards it: it appeared to be a man armed with a cutlass. Amy froze at the sight of the weapon. Leonard approached him slowly; the man stood silent and motionless, regarding him.

As we drew nearer to him, I perceived that he was dressed in clothes as dusty and filthy as my own; he looked, indeed, as though he had been dragged through a hedge backwards. Nearer, I distinguished the green slime of ditches mixing with the pale drab of dried clay and shiny, oily patches. His hair was shaggy and fell over his eyes, and his face was dark, dirty and sunken, so that at first none of us recognised him. There was a red cut across the lower part of his face.

"Stop!" he cried, when Leonard was within ten yards of him: we all stopped. His voice was hoarse. "Where do you come from?" he said. I thought, surveying him. "We're from Pasadena", Leonard shouted. "We were buried near the pit the invaders had made about their cylinder, but we worked our way out and escaped." He blinked. "Which way are you going?" he asked. I answered slowly: "I don't know, we have been buried in the ruins of a house for over two weeks, and we don't know what has happened." He looked at me doubtfully, then started, and looked with a changed expression. He shot out a pointed finger. "It's you, Sheldon Cooper; I thought you had been killed back in Pasadena!" I recognised him in the same moment: it was Stuart from the comic book store. "We are the lucky ones", he said, holding out his hand, which I took. "I crawled up a drain", he said."But they didn't kill everyone: after they went away, I got off towards the shore across the fields. It's been sixteen days altogether - and your hair is going grey." He looked over his shoulder towards Leonard. "This is a bit open", he said. "Let us crawl under these bushes and talk."

"Have you seen any invaders?" Bernadette asked. "Since I crawled out, they appear to have headed northward", he said. "I guess they've got a bigger camp out there. At night, in that direction", he pointed, "the sky is alive with their lights. It's like a great city, and in the glare you can just see them moving. By daylight, you can't. But nearer, I haven't seen them for..." (he started counting on his fingers) "...five days. Then I saw a couple across Chatsworth way, carrying something big. And the night before last..." He stopped and spoke impressively: "...it was just a matter of lights, but it was something up in the air. I believe that they have built a flying machine, and are learning to fly."

"Fly?!"

"Yes", he said: "fly."

"It is over with humanity", I said. "If they can do that, and our weapons are futile against them, then they will simply go around the world and there will be nothing that we can do to stop them." He nodded. "They will. But it will relieve things over here a bit. And besides", he said, looking at me, "aren't you kinda glad that it IS over with humanity? I always thought you saw us as an in-superior life form?" he chuckled. I stared. Strange as it may seem, I had not arrived at this fact, a fact perfectly obvious as soon as he spoke. Not of me considering mankind as an inferior life form, but I had still held a vague hope of returning to normality. I had kept a lifelong habit in mind. He repeated his words: "we're beat." They carried absolute conviction.

"It's all over", he said. "They've made their footing good and crippled the greatest power in the world. They've walked all over us. These are only the pioneers. They kept on coming. These green stars I've seen the last few days: I have no doubt in my mind that they have been arriving somewhere in the world. Nothing can be done. We're under! We're beat!"

I made him no answer. I sat staring before me, trying in vain to devise some countervailing thought. "This isn't a war", said Stuart. "It never was a war, any more than there is a war between man and ants."

"I have an idea!" shrieked Bernadette. "Bacteria!" she continued. "What about it?" Leonard asked curiously. "The invaders won't have immunity to the effects of earthborn bacteria", shouted Amy, as though instantly understanding where her friend's chain of thought lay. "How do you know?" Stuart asked. "Even if you are right, how can it alter the end? They will have devised some way of protecting themselves from exposure! It's just men and ants. There's the ants building their cities, living their lives, having wars and revolutions, until the men want them out of the way, and then they go out of the way. That's what we are now... just ants. Only..." He paused. "Only we're edible ants." We sat looking at each other. "That's exactly my point", Bernadette said. "They may have found some way to protect themselves from exposure, but, at the end of the day, they are feeding off humans and have been seen outside of their machines: there is plenty of opportunity to make them exposed!" She had a look in her eyes: the look of malice!


	27. Chapter 27: Important Things

_"It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow" - Robert H. Goddard_

_**This chapter was inspired by VikingHeart's FanFic "Rescued": she is such a talented author and her story is just so beautiful... =))**_

**Chapter Twenty-Seven: Important Things**

That night, I retreated to my room to think over Bernadette's suggestion: how on Earth were we going to find bacteria to use against these monsters, I asked myself. Everything had been destroyed. I was lost without my white board to write down my equations, so I had resorted to picking out anything from within the room which might have been of help. It was useless, and I was becoming restless again when Penny entered the room. She always had a way of brightening my mood with her mere presence; however, we had not really spent much time alone since our time in the ruins of the white house, and we certainly had not had any chance to discuss what had taken place in the pantry during our imprisonment there.

"Take my hand and lead the way out of the darkness and into the light of the day, and take me somewhere I'll be safe. Carry my lifeless body away from the pain", said Penny.

"I know what I've been missing, and I know that I should try, but there's hope in this submission, and there's freedom in your eyes", I admitted to her.

And we cried away...

"I'm sick and tired of being afraid. If I cry anymore then my tears will wash me away. But when I hear you call my name, I whisper the words that I never thought I'd ever say", I told her.

"And I hope to God you listen and you keep me safe from harm, 'cos I found what I was missing when I fell into your arms", she replied.

And we cried away...

"I can feel the darkness coming and I'm afraid of myself. Call my name and I'll come running, 'cos I just need some help!" I whispered to her.

My heart felt like it had stopped when she leaned closer to me and, softly like a whisper, she touched my lips with her own. She closed her eyes, and I basked in the blissful feeling of her gentle lips. She put her hands on my chest to steady herself. When she removed her lips, we met each other's gaze. My lips tingled from the kiss, and I longed to feel her lips again. She hesitated for just one brief second: I have no doubt that this was to make sure I was comfortable with what was happening; she may have thought that I would freak out and bolt. When she felt sure that I was not going anywhere, she grabbed my jacket by the collar, dragged my head down to her and kissed me again, with much more intensity than there had been in the first one.

I gave out a little moan while my hands moved to her back. She stroked my lips with her tongue and we both moaned softly when our tongues started to slowly explore each other's mouths. She moved even closer to me and wrapped her arms around my neck. I pulled her towards me until I felt she was almost hurt by the pressure from the zipper on my jacket; I tried to pull back so not as to hurt her, but she didn't seem to care. The only thing that seemed to matter to her, right then, right there, was that I kissed her!


	28. Chapter 28: Brave New World

_"Now our domination of the Earth is fading fast. And out of the confusion the chance has come at last, to build a better future from the ashes of the past" _

**Chapter Twenty-Eight: Brave New World**

"I've been thinking", said Bernadette. "I'm a microbiologist: I study this kind of thing all the time. I'm pretty sure that if those alien bastards came into contact with an earthbound virus, something as simple as the common cold could be potentially deadly to them as their bodies won't have come into contact with anything like that before, so they won't have immunity to the virus", she explained. "We need to get to a lab", said Leonard.

"Here's what we know about them", Stuart started. "It seems that they want us for food. First, they smash us up: ships, machines, guns, cities and all the order and organisation. All that has gone. If we were the size of ants, we might pull through. But we're not. It's all too bulky to stop. That's the first certainty, eh?!"

I listened carefully.

"It is: I've thought it out. If they catch us, we are dead. A monster only has to go a few miles to get a crowd on the run. And I saw one, one day, out by Beverley Hills, picking houses to pieces and rooting amongst the wreckage. But they won't keep on doing that. So, as soon as they've settled all our military and smashed our roads and railways, they will begin catching us systematically, picking the best and storing us in cages. That's what they will start doing to us next. There'll be 'Human Farms', like the ones in the Matrix movies. They haven't even begun on us yet. Don't you see that?"

He paused.

"All the more reason for us to fight back!" said Bernadette.

"All that's happened so far is through us not having the sense to keep quiet; worrying them with missiles and such foolery", he continued.

"...and losing our heads, and rushing off in crowds to where there wasn't any more safety than where we were. They don't want to bother us yet. They're making their machines, all the machines that they couldn't bring with them, getting things ready for the rest of their kind. Instead of us rushing about blind, on the howl, or getting dynamite on the chance of busting them up, we've got to fix ourselves up according to the new state of affairs. That's how I figure it out. It isn't quite according to what we want for our species, but it's what all the facts point to. And that's the principle on which I propose my idea. Cities, nations, civilisation as we know it... it's all over. The game's up. We're beat."

He paused again.

"But if that's true, what is there to live for?!" Penny asked him. Stuart looked at her for a moment.

"Well there won't be any more pop concerts for a million years or so, and there won't be any more trips to the Cheesecake Factory. You'll never win a Nobel Prize." He looked right at me. "If it's amusement that you want, I reckon the game is up. If you've got any inhibitions about eating food without a knife and fork, you'd better chuck them away."This thought made me grimace.

"What do you mean?" Penny asked him.

"I mean that men and women like me and you are going on living, for the sake of our breed. I tell you, I'm hell bent on living. And if I'm not mistaken, you'll show what guts you two have got too, before long", he replied, looking towards Penny and I. "We aren't going to be exterminated. And I don't mean to be caught either: tamed and fattened up like a Thanksgiving turkey. Ugh!" he continued.

"So what exactly are you suggesting here?" Amy asked him.

"We're gonna build a whole new world for ourselves, right under their noses. I've got it planned. So we gotta make a new life where they'll never find us. You know where? Underground. You should see it down there: hundreds of miles of drains – sweet and clean now after the rain: dark, quiet, safe. We can build houses and everything, start again from scratch. And what's so bad about living underground, eh? It's not been so great living up here, if you want my opinion. We'll build shops and hospitals and barracks right under their noses. Everything we need: banks, prisons and schools. We'll send scouting parties to collect books, and men like you'll teach the kids. Not poems and rubbish – science, so we can get everything working. We'll build villages and towns and... and... maybe one day we'll capture a Fighting Machine, eh? Learn how to make 'em ourselves and then: wallop! Our turn to do some wiping out!"

"He's crazy", I heard Raj whisper.

"I bet his mother never had him tested", I pointed out in a rather matter-of-fact tone.

"He might be onto something when he mentions capturing one of their machines though!", added Leonard.

"Chance would be a fine thing", replied Raj

"Well I'm certainly not letting any alien scum drive me underground: it's no place for a lady", said Amy.

"I'm gonna take my chances with the bacteria plan", Bernadette added.

In the cellar, there was a tunnel scarcely ten yards long: it had taken him a week to dig. Penny could have dug that much in a day: suddenly, I had my first inkling of the gulf between his dreams and his abilities. I looked over at Leonard.

That night we all drank, and then Stuart insisted upon playing cards. With our species on the edge of extermination, and with no prospect but a horrible death, we actually played games. Later, he talked more of his plan, but I saw flames flashing in the deep blue night, Red Weed glowing and tripod figures moving distantly. I put down my glass:I felt a traitor to my kind, and I knew we must leave this strange dreamer. I felt, deep down, that Bernadette had the best idea: take on these invaders head on and reclaim our planet!


	29. Chapter 29: The Homo Novus Malfunction

**I would like to appologise to Robmeister for the similarities between some of the dialect in the original version of this chapter and his story "Not a Homo Novus" I can assure you that it was not intentional in any way and I hope I have not offended you too much... I have made a few changes to this chapter and hopefully this has rectified any issues - Sammie **

_"home, it's where the heart is... where we'll never leave again, suffer or bleed again... where we go, vultures will feed on them and fire will come around and we'll be young again" – Hurts' "Exile"_

**Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Homo Novus Malfunction**

The group had been discussing the various ways in which they could deliver a fatal virus to the invaders. Leonard was droning on about science fiction movies that he had seen, and which of their plots he thought may provide the most effective means of carrying out their plan. My mind, however, seemed to be elsewhere. I was finding it increasingly difficult to concentrate: eventually, completely unable to do so, I had chosen to retreat to the room which I now regarded as my bedroom.

"Sheldon?" Penny called softly, after gently knocking on the door. I did not respond. I did not wish to speak with anyone, but Penny turned the door handle and eased the door open slowly. She peered in, and I lifted my head from my pillow to look at her.

"Hey sweetie. Whatcha doing?" asked Penny.

"I'm attempting to view my thoughts as a fleeting peripheral image so as to engage the superior colliculus of my brain", I replied.

"Interesting. I usually just have coffee", she replied. "Have you been up all night?"

"Is it morning?" I asked.

"Yes", Penny replied

"Then I've been up all night", I answered.

"Are you okay?" she asked. "The guys were trying to come up with a plan for most of the night."

"I have more important things to think about", I replied, dropping my head back down to the pillow.

"More important than defeating alien ass?" asked Penny, looking surprised. "You should try and get some sleep sweetie."

"I don't need sleep: I need answers. I need to determine where, in the swamp of unbalanced formulae in my head, squatteth the toad of truth!" I replied.

"Toad of truth?" asked Penny. "Is that a physics thing?"

I raised an eyebrow. "People cannot be in my room, Penny", I quickly reminded her.

"I have no choice, Moonpie: you're in here, so I have to be so I can talk to you", smiled Penny.

"Only Meemaw can call me that, Penny. Besides, your presence is no doubt required with the others downstairs for plotting", I said. Penny leant her head against the edge of the door.

"Sweetie, what's wrong? You are the most intelligent man I know. It should be you down there helping them come up with a plan. What is wrong with that big, beautiful brain of yours" she asked, the sound of concern quite apparent in her voice.

"Nothing", I sighed. I wished that I could tell her what was on my mind but for all of my life, I had hidden away from emotion. I was a man of science. How was I ever going to achieve my life long goal of winning a nobel prize if I gave in to animal instinct. No. Not Sheldon Lee Cooper, I thought.

"That loud sigh you just made says different", replied Penny. She always had a way of reading me, despite my best efforts.

"Very well, since you refuse to leave me alone", I sighed. "May I ask you for some advice?"

"The great mind of Sheldon Cooper is asking ME for advice" she chuckled, stepping forward and moving towards me, she closed the door behind her. I fidgeted briefly before pulling myself up onto the bed a little to prop my head up against the soft pillow behind me. She sat down on the edge of the bed next to me.

"If, say, a person started experiencing certain thoughts of a person of the opposite gender, what would be your theory on the issue?" I awkwardly asked her.

Penny thought for a moment.

"What kind of thoughts?" She asked.

"Well, say, that whenever they tried to think of more important things, their mind would wonder off into a tangent and their thoughts would somehow always find a way of digressing on to thoughts of that person." I continued to awkwardly fidget with my hands whilst talking to her.

"Well, I would say that this person has probably developed some sort of feelings towards that other person", she said finally, smiling at me.

"Damn, that's what I was afraid of." I sighed heavily. I was unfamiliar with these feelings and I had to admit that they scared me somewhat.

"Sheldon?" she asked. "Mister Homo Novus has developed feelings?" She sounded surprised.

"That is a very contradictory statement, Penny. Once a person experiences feelings, they are systematically no longer classified as Homo Novus", I replied.

"Holy crap on a cracker", smiled Penny, placing her hand over her mouth.

"I honestly do not understand the smile that makes up your facial expression: I can assure you that this situation is not one of amusement", I said, annoyed.

"I'm sorry, it's just… I never thought in a million years that YOU would experience feelings for another human being. Could that person possibly be me?" asked Penny.

I paused for a moment, struggling to make sense of my conflicting emotions.

"Of course it is you, Penny. It has always been you. However, I am deeply troubled by it. Penny, I don't know what to do", I admitted to her. "I can't keep feeling like this. How do I make it stop?" I asked.

Penny looked sad. "Why do you want it to stop, Sheldon? Being in love with someone is a beautiful thing: you should embrace it, not shy away from it", she said, smiling.

"It's not like you could think about me in the same way though Penny. It would be considered a pointless crush in that respect", I said. Trying to hide the sadness in my eyes, I looked down at the floor.

"How do you know that I don't like you in that way? Have you ever asked me?" asked Penny, smiling. "Sheldon, you're a good looking guy" she said, winking. "I've kissed you twice, do you think I would have done that if I didn't have feelings for you?"

I raised my eyebrows. "You have never told me that you found me attractive before?"

"Well you are. You have the most beautiful, deep, ocean blue eyes, and underneath that condescending act you insist on putting on, you are one of the most caring and genuine people I have ever met. Damn it Cooper, you crazy whack-a-doodle, I love you!" smiled Penny, moving closer to me.

I did not know what to say. We had been through so much over the last few weeks, and I had never considered that Penny might feel so strongly towards me.

"Then I must apologise", I said to her. "But you really do have to understand that one has spent one's entire life being different from everyone else, being beaten up on a daily basis: apparently, one can even be beaten up simply by referring to one's self as one. It is often very hard for me to deal with any sort of emotion. I have had to spend my entire life without relying on anyone for emotional support, by keeping myself closed off from the rest of the world. Now, suddenly, I find myself the exact opposite of that person, and every barrier I have worked so hard to build is collapsing right before my eyes. It scares me, Penny", I said to her, almost whispering the last part, my eyes burning with emotion. Penny's face softened.

"Sheldon, you don't have to be scared. I just want you to talk to me. Don't hide away", she said softly, placing her arms around me and pulling me close towards her.

"Awwww, my Shelly-Bean is turning into a real boy", she chuckled to herself.


	30. Chapter 30: I Remember California

_"I'd listen to the words he'd say, but in his voice I heard decay. The plastic face forced to portray all the insides left cold and grey. There is a place that still remains: it eats the fear, it eats the pain. The sweetest price he'll have to pay, the day the whole world went away" - The Day The World Went Away_

**Chapter Thirty: I Remember California**

After we had parted from Stuart, we went down the hill; by the high street we headed down interstate 110, back towards Pasadena and the California Institute of Technology: whatever there was left of it!

The red weed was tumultuous at that time and almost choked the roadway, but its fronds were already whitened in patches by the spreading disease that presently removed it so swiftly. The red weed was not native to our world and was being killed off by those members of the plant kingdom which were native.

At the corner of the ramp which led onto the interstate, we found a man lying upon the ground. He was as black as a chimney sweep with the black dust; alive, but helplessly and speechlessly drunk. Bernadette tried to talk to him, but could get nothing from him beyond curses and furious lunges at her head. We would have stayed by him, but the brutal expression on his face helped to make the decision to leave him behind.

There was black dust along the roadway from the ramp onwards, and it grew thicker in Compton. The streets were horribly quiet. Leonard found some food: it was sour, hard and slightly mouldy, but he seemed to think that it was quite edible. Some way towards Rose Hill Park, the streets became clear of powder, and we passed a row of houses, each on fire; the noise of the burning was oddly an absolute relief from the painful quietness of the street. Carrying on towards Pasadena, the streets were quiet again.

Here, we came once more upon the black dust in the streets and upon several dead bodies. I saw,altogether, about a dozen in the length of the road. They appeared as though they had been dead for many days, so we quickly hurried past them. The black dust covered them over, and so softened their outlines. One or two of them had been disturbed by dogs.

Where there was no black powder, it was curiously like a Sunday in the city, with the closed shops, the houses all locked up and the blinds drawn, the desertion and the stillness. In some places, looters had been at work. A jeweller's window had been broken open in one place, but apparently the thief had been disturbed: a number of gold chains and a watch lay scattered on the pavement. Farther on was a tattered woman in a heap on a doorstep; the hand that hung over her knee was gashed and bled down her rusty brown dress, and a smashed bottle of wine formed a pool across the pavement. She seemed asleep, but she was dead.

The closer we got to Pasadena, the more profound grew the stillness. But it was not so much the stillness of death – it was the stillness of suspense, of expectation. At any time, the destruction – which had already singed most of California and had annihilated Pasadena and Los Angeles – might strike again. This was a state condemned and derelict...

Back in Pasadena, the streets were clear of dead and black dust. It was near CalTech that we first heard the howling. It crept almost imperceptibly upon my senses. It was a alternation of two notes: "Ullah Ullah, Ullah Ullah", keeping on perpetually. When I passed the streets which ran northward, it grew in volume, and the houses and buildings seemed to deaden and cut it off again. It came in a full tide downExhibition Road. I stopped, staring towards the university, wondering at the strange, remote wailing. It was as though that mighty desert of houses had found a voice for its fear and solitude.

"Ullah Ullah, Ullah Ullah", wailed the superhuman note – great waves of sound sweeping down the broad, sunlit roadway, between the tall buildings on each side. We turned northwards, marvelling, towards the main entrance gates of the university. I had half a mind to break in and find my way up to the microbiology department, and so we went on up the Exhibition Road. Everywhere was empty and still, and our footsteps echoed against the sides of the buildings. The voice grew stronger and stronger, though I could see nothing above the buildings except for a haze of smoke towards the northwest.

"Ullah Ullah, Ullah Ullah", cried the voice, coming, as it seemed to me, from the other side of the university. The desolating cry worked up my mind. The mood which had sustained me passed. The wailing was starting to take possession of me. I found that I was intensely weary, but I had not come this far to be killed now.

It was already past noon. Why were we wandering alone in the city of the dead? Why were we alive when the rest of California was lying in state, and in its black shroud? I thought of all the people we knew who we had witnessed succumb to this mysterious, unearthly death. Kripke, Leslie, Professor Gablehauser, Zack... Howard.

As we turned the corner towards the microbiology department , I saw, far away over the trees and in the clearness of the sunset, the hood of the great handling machine from which this howling originated. I was not terrified: I came upon it as if it were a matter of course. I watched it for a while, but it did not seem to move. It appeared to be standing and yelling, for no reason that I could discover.

We tried to formulate a plan of action. That perpetual sound - "Ullah Ullah" - confused my mind. Perhaps I was too tired to be fearful. Certainly, I was more curious to know the reason of this monotonous crying than afraid of it.

We came upon a wrecked war machine a little further away. At first, I thought that a building had fallen across the road. It was only as we clambered along the ruins that I saw, with a start, this mighty metal warlord lying, with its tentacles bent, smashed and twisted, among the ruins it had made. It looked like it had been shot down, my mind thought for a moment. What could have brought this beast down, when everything we had tried to use against them had failed?

Wondering still at the sight which we had seen, we pushed onwards towards the department. Far away through a gap in the trees, I saw a second tripod, as motionless as the first, standing a little way beyond the ruins of another smashed handling machine. Someone or something had done a damned good job of kicking these creatures. Both machines were motionless, the invader inside them slain.

As we neared the department, we saw the source of the wailing. It seemed, also, that it had seen us: as we came into view, the wailing immediately ceased. The silence came like a thunderclap. We stopped dead in our tracks as we looked up at this giant metal handling machine. The look on everyone's face told me that we, unanimously, knew that the invader had surely seen us. Penny closed her eyes tightly and grabbed hold of my hand, waiting for the inevitable death which we were sure to soon succumb to. It never came. It felt, to me, like the invader was toying with us, attempting to build up a sense of hope by not wiping us out immediately then swiftly taking that hope away as it dealt with us one by one. But our fears weren't realised. By whatever stroke of luck, we were still alive – but surely it had seen us.

Suddenly the opening underneath the hood opened and a familiar face appeared...

"HOWIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE...", shrieked Bernadette, as she ran towards her husband.


End file.
